Alpha and Omega: Paradise Lost
by Lilly Omega
Summary: When the world ends, the only hope for the few wolf survivors from Jasper is a rumored island off the coast of Canada. They will go through hell to reach the island and it may just prove to be a bigger hell than the journey itself. It's inspired by two Hollywood Undead songs (Paradise Lost and S.C.A.V.A.). I wrote 13 chapters seven months ago, stopped, then restarted it recently.
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

A snow-white wolf was sitting on a tree trunk, facing her new pack. She began speaking in a tone that was serious for her, a normally soft-spoken and shy wolf.

"I'm Lilly—formerly an Omega wolf of the former Western Pack of Jasper Park, Canada and the sister of the last Alpha female of said pack. I am one of the ten wolves from Jasper Park who survived the end of the world. Now, as I recount my terrifying story to you, the members of my new pack in my new home on Baffin Island, I am one of the three wolves from Jasper to survive the journey to this island. I will tell you all the dark things about it; all the fun we had, the love I made, everything before the end came. And all the pain, death, sadness, terror and bloodshed that we experienced after the end. This dark tale is not for the faint of heart or the young, so leave now or prepare to hear the worst. I will not stop, but you can leave at any time.

"Before the world came to an end in fire, plague, lava and flood waters, we wolves of Jasper Park had been at the location known as The Howling Rock. For as long as there's been wolves in Jasper, we have been coming to this mountain to find mates, howl with friends and family, and even mate in places that were difficult to find. It's hard having to tell these memories—but the memories, good or bad, of everyone who lost their lives need to be passed on through my story, to all future generations of storytellers. The stories of the Jasper wolves can't die with them…"

The Howling Rock, a small mountain at the borders of the united Eastern and Western Wolf Pack's territories, was where Lilly and her older sister Kate, the daughters of the preceding pack leaders Winston and Eve, met the wolves, who were now their mates, three years ago. Life had been so much different back then, they thought, during their puppy days and then adolescence. They would have had to marry wolves they did not even love because of a now abolished pack law—Alphas married Alphas, Betas married Betas, and Omegas married Omegas. They all would have married different wolves if it were not for a tragedy that had united the packs and caused the former pack leaders of the then two wolf packs to do away with the pack law of rank affecting marital choices. That tragedy was that Kate, now the Alpha female with her Omega mate Humphrey, had almost died when fighting between the packs caused a caribou stampede that trampled Kate. The stampede had started because Kate and Garth, an Eastern Alpha, and the son of Tony, the former Eastern Alpha male, had admitted to fallen in love with Omegas. They would not marry to unite the packs, which had sparked an immediate breach of peace between the packs, and caused stampede of caribou. Kate had been feared dead by all of her pack members, in addition all of the Eastern Pack Wolves, and they had howled a sad "song"—the "Requiem for Kate," or "Funeral Hymn for Kate"—only to relieve that she had been knocked unconscious.

In the end, after some rather forceful convincing on her mother's part, Kate, an Alpha, was allowed to marry Humphrey, an Omega whom she had fallen in love with, and Lilly, an Omega, and Kate's little sister, was allowed to marry Garth, an Alpha. Kate had conceived three puppies when she and Humphrey had mated on their way home on a train—the Jasper Park rangers had taken them to Sawtooth National Park in Idaho to repopulation there, but they made it back home with the help of Marcel and Paddy, a goose and a duck. They returned home just in time to prevent a war between the two packs—almost. First, Kate and Humphrey had hitched a ride in the back of a human couple's truck until they intentionally lost their ride because Humphrey had left it to relieve himself, only to find a cupcake, and fail to open the package. He had planned to eat it quickly, and then take care of his business. Because it had white frosting, when two humans working in the gas station on that had been working on that night had thought Humphrey was a rabid wolf. The owner, Max, had almost killed Kate and Humphrey using his shotgun, but he somehow had missed when he shot at them, and blew a hole in the fence he had cornered them against instead. They escaped through that hole in the fence, and the two birds led them to a train, where Humphrey mated with Kate after they had howled at the full moon with each other, just as Lilly and Garth had done at the same time in Jasper.

The spring after all this happened, Kate gave birth to three puppies—Claudette, the oldest and the only daughter, Stinky, the middle child, and Runt, the youngest. Until that year's Christmas, the united Eastern and Western Pack Wolves had thought all their troubles were over until Runt disappeared, taken to Banff by several former Eastern Pack Wolves. Those wolves Alpha male was an old friend of Tony who had left with his mate, daughter, and thirty other Eastern Pack Wolves because they had disagreed with the abolishment of the pack law that had forbidden the marriage of wolves outside their own rank. King, his mate Queen, and their only surviving daughter and pup, Princess, were the Alpha family, formerly known by the names Slash—King's original name, Terra—Princess's original name. Queen had always called herself "Queen," it seemed—she did not remember any other name, nor did any other Eastern or Western Pack Wolf.

King and Queen's plan had been to use Runt as bait to get the Alpha family—Kate, Humphrey, Lilly, Garth, Winston, Eve, Tony. In addition them, the rest of the strongest and smartest wolves—the Betas known as Claws, Scar, Hutch and Candu, and the Omegas Candy and Sweets—out of Jasper so he could send half his pack, now over two hundred wolves, to Jasper to take it over. His plan would have worked—

—if it had not been for not the actions of any of the Jasper wolves but his daughter Princess, who had betrayed her own father because she had come to love Runt as if she was his mother. When King had ordered her to come down and flirt with Humphrey, who had been distracting the rouges, under the false name "Lockjaw," his daughter had not answered, he realized Princess had betrayed him, and fled with the enslaved pup.

An all out battle had ensued between the Jasper wolves and the rogues, the former outnumbered many times over. The latter had had the advantage until King found Princess, still carrying Runt in her jaws, and he tried to kill his own daughter. He would have succeeded in killing Princess and Runt if it was not for the intervention of the Beta wolves from Jasper. Claws, Scar, Candu, and Hutch, in addition to Princess, had proven to be almost too much for King, and they took him down. However, although Princess had almost fatally wounded her father, by tearing his throat open, King had managed to tear her throat open as while.

Princess died as the Jasper wolves had allowed King to slink away, bleeding out, to die, most likely, before he got too far from the scene. As the wolves howled mournfully, the same howl, the "Requiem for Kate," now howled for Princess rather than Kate, who had been among the wolves howling, what they could only call a miracle by the Jasper wolves happened at their feet. Somehow, Princess woke up after dying—Candy had checked Princess's pulse, and there hadn't been one; Princess had stopped breathing, too—but the Jasper wolves did not notice it until she said Runt's name in a weak voice. Although her wound had been bleeding still, she seemed to have suddenly improved during the time the Jasper wolves had no explanation for what happened to Princess.

They stayed at the border of Banff, in a den Candy and Sweets had found, for a day so Princess could recover, and Candy, Sweets, and Eve could patch the hole in her neck up. Remarkably, Princess was still able to speak after her injury, but her voice had been much weaker than it used to be for some time.

Lilly and Garth had never mated, or even thought about starting a family, but on this night, they intended on changing that. As their friends and family were howling together or seeking mates at various elevations of The Howling Rock, they were seeking out an extremely private location to finally consummate their love—by mating for the first time, even though they had gotten married three years earlier. Although Kate and Humphrey had mated before they could marry, breaking pack law in the process, Lilly and Garth had waited until they had really gotten to know each other before they wanted to mate. Three years was a long time to get to know someone's mate, and, even though they had truly loved each other, they wanted to have been together a long time before they started a family.

The private location they decided to mate in was the tall grassy field about a mile from The Howling Rock. This field happened to be the one Lilly and Garth called home, rather than a den. Garth's father Tony had never wanted his son and his daughter-in-law, and eventually his grandpups, to live anywhere but in a den, let alone in a field. Tony had even offended to give up his own den if they would live in it, but the couple had kindly refused Tony's offer. It was because of the two vegetarian wolves, Reba and Janice, who were best friends since their puppy days, which Lilly and Garth called this field home. The vegetarians had show them this field after their wedding, and they had loved living in a field better than in any sort of cave or den.

Garth looked on with interest as Lilly stuck her butt up in the air, and lifted her bushy tail up even up, giving her mate a good view of what was underneath it. As if just to tease Garth, she began waving her tail back and forth, and shaking her butt provocatively. Her intention was to cause Garth to get sexually excited, and she could tell by just looking at the area between his legs that it was working. A smile grew over her lips when she saw what she did, as they stared at each other in places they normally would not. Lilly was a shy wolf who normally did not act like this, not even around Garth. She had never shown the underside of her tail or her butt to anyone before. Just as much as Lilly loved what she saw—as she made eye contact with the space between Garth's legs—just as much as Garth was enjoying what he saw underneath his mate's tail, as she provocatively waved in back and forth slowly.

Lilly was in heat, and Garth knew it. He could smell it on her, and the scent of her heat was powerful. It had turned him on, and Lilly shaking her butt and tail had done that even more than her heat alone did. Garth also knew what Lilly wanted him to give her, just by considering she was in heat and acting so out of character. The only time a female wolf could get pregnant was when she was in heat, and neither of them wanted to miss this opportunity to start a family, finally, after three years of not mating.

"Give me all you got, Garth!" Lilly said in a seductive voice, continuing to shake her butt and tail, in addition to now batting her noticeable eyelashes in just as provocative of a fashion as she was moving her hips back and forth, also slowly, just like her tail.

Lilly ceased all movement of her hips when Garth came up behind her. He did not hesitate to mount her and stick himself inside his mate, before he started thrusting against her hips. Garth put his paws on Lilly's hips, still stuck up in the air, to give him more balance. It took a while for wolves to mate, so he would be here for over ten minutes before he was done. He had not even been thrusting for half a minute but Lilly was already enjoying this. She was breathing heavily, and moaning, and crying out in pleasure. Her cries were loud, but Garth knew he was not hurt her. He was making her feel better than anyone, anything, ever had, physically or mentally.

She smiled when she saw Garth's legs stick out in front of her own front legs. Lilly's tail was not sticking up straight, right against her mate's chin or face, but rather off to the side of his underbelly. The back of her head was up against his chest.

Garth was digging his hind paws into the soil now, as Lilly felt him continue to penetrate her. She was still tight, so it was a lot of effort on the part of Garth to mate with her, and a lot of effort on the part of Lilly to be able to handle so much pleasure, and abuse, for lack of a better term, of her butt. Well, not exactly her butt, she thought, but it was close enough! She was not thinking straight—the pleasure was too great for either half of the couple to think straight. All Garth was thinking about was getting Lilly pregnant, just as much as she was thinking about finally getting pregnant. Her parents and the rest of her family would be so happy to get such news.

Lilly shut her eyes tight, and opened her mouth wide. Garth's mouth, too, was wide open as he moaned in pleasure, not stopping his thrusting in and out of her. Just like Lilly, his tongue was hanging out of his mouth, and he was drooling—

—right on Lilly's head, not that she minded any. She was actually in too much pleasure to care, or notice, if Garth was drooling on her. However, she would not care if she did notice that he was drooling. Now, Lilly stuck her legs straight out in front of her body. Still, they did not go further than Garth's legs. He was a lot bigger than Lilly. Then again, most wolves were larger than Lilly, even her fellow Omegas.

"Faster, Garth! Faster!" she begged with pleasure in her voice. "Make me feel good—really good!"

Garth complied, and began thrusting faster than he had been. His increased speed made not only Lilly moaning constantly, but Garth as well, only less frequently than his mate. She was the one getting the most pleasure from him thrusting, but when he reached his climax, Garth would probably the one in the most pleasure. Not that either of them had been keeping track of how long he had been thrusting, but they had been going at it for almost fifteen minutes now, and Garth's climax was about to happen—

—and it did almost as soon as he thought about the funny feeling he was getting. Lilly and Garth, in unison, let out screams of pleasure as he climaxed, filling Lilly's womb up with his fluids. Because she was in heat, they both knew there was no chance she would not get pregnant. Garth had intended to warn Lilly that his climax was nearing, but he did not have a chance before he had given one last, powerful thrust, and then released his fluids into Lilly.

The two wolves began panting, their tongues hanging out more than ever now. If it had been possible, they would be sweating now, but wolves only sweated on their paws, and that was just to keep them cool after running for a long time. It took a lot of effort, more than it took to mate, even, to get a wolf to sweat anywhere else other than on their paws.

Lilly and Garth rested for a minute or two before he dismounted his mate. Lilly turned around, and laid down on all four legs again, in Garth's direction. She looked up at him with innocent eyes. As the recovered from their exhaustion brought on by the rigorous task of mating, they would both thinking about doing something else. A female had never blown Garth, and Lilly had never blown a male.

_Maybe it would be a good time to do it for the first time,_ both Lilly and Garth thought at the same time, not that either of them knew what the other was thinking.

Garth knew Lilly was thinking the same thing he was when she opened her drooling mouth wide and began moving her head toward his crotch. She had been about to put the entire thing in her mouth when they heard what sounded like someone singing not far from where they were. It did not sound like a wolf—it was not howling—nor did it sound like the singing of any animal they could think of, or had ever heard before. When they went through the tallest blades of grass, Lilly and Garth learned it was not even an animal.

A lone human, a male, it seemed to the two wolves, was sitting on a tree stump, singing to himself. There was some sort of dull plastic object, the thinner end, in his mouth. Some kind of light gray smoke was coming out of the larger, exposed end of this object neither wolf had ever seen before. Nevertheless, the smoke smelled almost pleasant to Lilly and Garth. It enticed them to move closer, slowly, so they would not frighten the human. As they walked slowly toward him, the next thing they noticed two more of the objects just like the one in the human's mouth, lying on a piece of cloth on the tree trunk by the man's waist. In front of these two plastic objects, there was a plastic bag labeled "marijuana." Of course, Lilly and Garth could not read it, considering how they were wolves, and only understood their own language, which wolves did not write down, unlike that of the humans. In the bag, the two wolves saw a good amount of oddly shaped and shredded leaves.

"Oh, two wolves," the man said, suddenly, in an almost laughing voice. He sounded so happy, so good-natured that the wolves sensed they had no reason to be afraid of him. Although the wolves did not understand the written language of humans, they could understand humans when they spoke what humans called "English," not that any wolf would know that, but the humans could not understand the language of wolves. All they heard was yips, barks, snarls, growls, and so many other noises that wolves made when they communicated.

He was still speaking about a minute later, after going off on some random babbling that had confused Lilly and Garth. Now, they were beginning to understand him a little more. "Oh—" he laughed again. Lilly and Garth now noticed how slurred his words were. "—you two wolves must want some of my…my…my…weed?" He stammered, struggling to finish his sentence. "Well, here you go!" he added in a good-natured voice. He seemed to be unaware that wolves be potentially dangerous, he was so wasted, stoned or whatever it humans called it, the wolves thought together, staring at each other in confusion. He saw nothing that worried him, and the wolves were not worried about this human being dangerous to them, either.

However, Lilly and Garth had not expected this human to taken the two plastic objects, called pipes, and stuck the thinner ends of each one into their jaws, one at a time. He carefully lit the ends of the pipes with his lighter, to avoid setting the wolves on fire. Even when impaired as he was, this man still seemed to know enough to be careful with sources of fire, like his lighter, especially around the fur of animals.

"Now," he began instructing them, "just breath in and out of t-the pipes, and you two will…be feeling great in a matter of a few minutes."

Lilly and Garth followed his instructions, and smoked whatever it was that was in these pipes until they were both too out of it to hold the pipes in their jaws anymore. The human did not get angry when the pipes fell—he had been expecting that to happen eventually.

Now Lilly and Garth were behaving almost exactly how the man who had given them the "marijuana" had been when they found him—and how he still was acting. Lilly and Garth were side-by-side of each other, their sides pressing up against each other. Lilly was on the right and Garth was on the left. They had pressed their heads against each other to help balance themselves out. The two wolves were now seeing things. Well, Garth was. Lilly, she was not seeing anything that was not there, even when she could manage to keep her eyes open. Garth was also having trouble with keeping his eyes open. They could hardly hold themselves up, either.

"Li…Lil…Lilly," Garth slurred, "am…am I seein…seeing nine birds? Or…or nineteen?" Garth thought he was seeing bluebirds like the ones he used to kill when he was a terrible howler, before Lilly had taught him how to howl properly. Lilly saw them now that Garth had mentioned it. However, they were not there, not that the wolves could realize it.

Lilly responded, speaking slowly as her mate. "Baby…I'm too damn stoned to tell! Just…to…damn…stoned…" Lilly's voice slowed, faded away, and then she fell backwards. Lilly's torso was on the ground, and her butt was up in the air. Her busy tail fell down between her hind legs. She tried to get up but only succeeded in ending up on her belly, now, front and hind legs sprawled out.

Garth, who now had nothing to hold him, collapsed as well—

—right onto Lilly, who had already passed out. Garth passed out before he even fell over, and before his head landed gently on Lilly's butt.

The man had to laugh at these two unconscious wolves. Never in his life would he have ever imagined being responsible for getting two wolves, a wild animal, stoned! However, he would move them back into the field, at least, before they woke up. He knew from coming here so many times before, to get stoned, of course, that these two wolves lived in that field. For some reason, he had decided to wrap them up entirely in the blankets of moss he saw there, before leaving them to sleep.

When the man returned to the open area of land, where he had been smoking, he saw something that sobered him up quickly. It did so more quickly than seeing a police officer, when he was stoned, ever had. It was an immediate effect on him.

An earthquake or something had destroyed the landscape—there was nothing left of it, at least not comparable to how it had looked before. There were cracks in the ground, in addition to fire everywhere, and rivers of lava flowing all around. How did this hellish scene happen so quickly, without him hearing it happen? That was what the man was wondering as he looked on in terror. Just as suddenly as this had happened, the ground began splitting open. The split in the ground came in his direction—

—and the man screamed as he fell. He died upon impact with the lava below, which burned him up immediately. It was a quick death, at least. There was no way to die faster than falling into a river of lava or magma.

All of Jasper, all of Canada, was experiencing the same chaos just as suddenly. There was nothing, nothing at all, left of The Howling Rock…

* * *

**Author's note:** I had no idea the prologue of this story was over 4000 words when I originally hand wrote this. It's definitely the longest prologue I've ever written.

Before people ask where I got the idea of Lilly and Garth getting high—it's because of a picture I found, and the caption on the picture is what I used for Lilly and Garth talking before they passed out. (It was an edited Alpha and Omega screenshot I found on Fanpop.)


	2. Waking Up to Nothing

**Chapter 1**

**Waking Up to Nothing**

Somehow, Lilly and Garth had managed to sleep through the night, despite the almost apocalyptic event that had gone on around them—

—and survive it without anything waking them up, or injury them. Maybe they were able to sleep so perfectly because of the affect those odd plants had had on them. As for how they'd managed to survive, well, they had to just be lucky, considering how the ground they they'd been sleeping didn't collapse under them, like it did almost everywhere around them. They did not even know that anything had happened yet, as they finally woke up. Thankfully, at least, the effect of those plants they had smoked had worn off in their sleep.

Lilly and Garth followed the first path out of the field, that they saw first, and right away, toward The Howling Rock. They were going through a path, out in the open, not in the field. Moreover, it was a good thing they had. Everything else around the now tiny island they had slept peacefully on the entire night was gone, replaced by pools of magma. They saw this and so much more from a top of a dome of earth. The broken landscape, which went on for seemingly hundreds of miles in every direction they looked. Everything was broken part, flooded by water or lava, or burning. Lava had destroyed all the vegetation, except for the tiny island where the two surviving wolves had slept. Any rivers that had been water the night before were now rivers of lava.

Lilly looked to the west of the remnants of the grassy field, toward The Howling Rock, which was entirely gone. It was nothing more than a pile of rubble now and surrounded by a moat of lava. It was as if Hell was surrounding the former mountain on all sides.

"Wha...what happened?" Lilly's voice was shaking with terror. "Where is everyone? How did we sleep through such a powerful earthquake, even if we were stoned?" She sounded so calm just because of how shocked she was, not because she was calm. How on Earth could be calm during a situation like this?

"It doesn't matter how we slept through any kind of earthquake," Garth said in a serious voice—a serious voice that was shaking as badly as Lilly's was. "Almost everyone was at The Howling Rock. We need to get there as soon as we can. There could be wolves there who are hurt or dying, Lilly."

* * *

Things were so much worse when they reached The Howling Rock than it had seemed from about a mile away. The dead corpses of wolves were everyone, killed by too many different things to list them all. The most common cause of death seemed to be crushed skulls and broken backs. The worst thing about this all was that Lilly and Garth knew all the wolves who were now dead. They saw Winston, Tony, and Reba, the younger of the two vegetarians. Winston's back was broken, and a rock had crushed Tony's face in, splattering his blood and brain matter all over the ground. As for Reba—there was a hole in her body. Lava must have splashed out of the ground and burned right through her. What they saw next confirmed that—lying not far away from Reba's lifeless body was her half burned up intestines. They were most likely Reba's intestines, considering how lava, most likely, had burned half of them away, in addition to a hole in Reba's underbelly.

Lilly started crying when she thought she recognized the bodies of three adolescent wolves. Rocks had crushed their heads beyond recognition, and had splattered their gore all over the rock wall behind where they laid. They were also familiar to Garth, despite their broken bodies. It was hard for the two wolves grasp the fact that these three dead wolves could possibly be Claudette, Stinky, and Runt, the adolescent children of Kate and Humphrey, and therefore their nieces and nephews.

The body of the wolf who could be Claudette was torn in half, as the result of a massive and sharp shard of rock impaling her all the way through. It was wider than Claudette's body was, and split her in half when she must have fallen backward on it, to avoid a flash of lava. There was evidence that something had burned a hole in the ground not that far from where she would have been standing. The wolf who looked like Stinky had a broken neck, due to a tree branch that a tornado had thrown right into his head. It was a massive tree branch, and no one the impact had killed Stinky. Alternatively, whoever this wolf could be. They did not know because there was a rock over his face, which had caved it in. Rocks had oddly caved in the heads of all three of these wolves. For that reason, Lilly and Garth would not know for sure if this were whom they thought it was, but the bodies greatly resembled Claudette, Stinky, and Runt.

The third body, which greatly resembled the body of Runt, the youngest of the three, had probably suffered the worst death of his siblings. There was a massive hole in his body, just like the one in Reba's body, where lava had burned right through him. Also just like Reba, his intestines and other organs from the area of his underbelly, what the lava had not burned up, lay not far away from the body that was possible Runt.

Lilly threw up everything that was in her stomach. This much blood, gore and death was too much for a sensitive, shy wolf like her to handle. Moreover, because the deceased was, and seemed to be, so many of her friends and family, made it seem so much worse than it really was. This, in her and Garth's minds, was a true vision of Hell on Earth, Lilly thought darkly now. What could be worse than what appeared to be everyone they had ever known dying in a single night? Nothing at all. Looking around, Lilly and Garth realized how this broken and bloody landscape reminded them of a nightmarish tale that the pack's storytelling wolf had told them—

—about the end of the world. What Lilly and Garth was witnessing now was exactly what she had described in that old tale, but they had never thought it would actually happen. They had also never thought that they, Lilly and Garth, would possibly be the only Jasper wolves to survive the end of the world. That made them wish they were both dead, too, among all the others who had died in a single night.

Among all that was the broken bodies of wolves and the broken landscape that had been the Western Wolf Pack's Territory in Jasper Park, they could not understand why they were alive when everyone else had died so brutally. There was not even a reason for them to go on living, even with the great possibility that Lilly could be pregnant now. That was hardly enough for them to go on.

Lilly and Garth discussed it, agreed with each other, and then looked down into the nearest massive rift in the ground. Their faces glowed because of the lava. It was so tempting for them both just to let themselves fall into it—the lava.

That was what they had agreed on, and were about to do now, as the couple slowly moved closer to the edge together…


	3. Survivors

**Chapter 2**

**Survivors**

Lilly and Garth looked down into the pit of lava again and then at each other one last time before they closed their purple and amber eyes. They started to continue their movement toward the edge, and they would have let themselves fall off into the lava put if it was not for the horrifying scream they had ever heard splitting the air like a wolf's claws. It was a female screaming, and her voice was very familiar to both Lilly and Garth, the former especially, although the latter recognized her voice to. Lilly had known her since the first day of her life, at least since she could see and hear, that is. It was Kate, her older sister and the pack's Alpha female.

The snow-white Omega wolf darted in the direction the screaming was coming from, as well as the panicked voices. She left Garth behind, inadvertently, but he did not hesitate to follow her as soon as he realized she had left him all alone. It was not just a single female screaming, they realized, but at least six wolves either talking or screaming. Maybe two males and four females, they assumed as they ran toward the source of the wolves. The how ever many wolves there was were around the bend where Lilly and Garth had just been contemplating suicide by lava. It was around the bend where they had just found the bodies of three adolescent wolves—possibly Claudette, Runt, and Stinky, the daughters of the pack leaders Kate and Humphrey, and the niece and nephews of Lilly and Garth.

The parents of Claudette, Runt, and Stinky were weeping over the lifeless bodies of the adolescent wolves they assumed was Kate and Humphrey's three children.

The other four wolves were Princess, a former member of a rogue pack of wolves from Banff National Park who were all formerly from the Eastern Wolf Pack of Jasper, or descended from those wolves; Claws and Scar, two Eastern Pack Beta Wolves; and lastly, Candy and Sweets, two Western Pack Omega Wolves, and best friends since they were puppies. These six other survivors kept their distance from Kate and Humphrey so they could mourn the devastated bodies, possibly their only children. There was nothing worse than the event of parents losing their children all at once, except for the opposite happening—children losing their parents and becoming orphans. The now ten survivors were sure that if there were other survivors out there, that many of them were probably orphans.

They went to talk a good distance away from Kate, Humphrey, and Princess, as they cried and screamed over the three bodies. Runt was Princess's mate before…this…

"What happened last night?" Garth asked, stunned.

"Everything fell apart—literally!" Claws answered with a dark, serious tone in her voice. "Everything went straight to hell and almost everyone died. We're not the only survivors, though—Mica, Fleet, and Magril aren't far away from here. You know, the two girls are pregnant, and needed to rest. Unfortunately, it seems that two of them are widows now. We found Liam—" Liam was a Western Pack Wolf and Magril's mate. Fleet was the mate of Claudette, now supposedly dead, and Magril was his little sister, who looked almost like a twin of Claudette almost for her white and dull-yellow fur, and shorter mane. "—he was nothing but half a body, splashed by the lava on his lower half. And it seems like Princess and Fleet both lost their mates, too," she added just as darkly, in more of a sad tone than before. "I really hope that we can determine if that is Claudette, Runt, and Stinky or not…no one deserves to lose their mates. I'm lucky to have Scar with me, still, since I'm about three weeks from giving birth, but I wish the others were as lucky to know if their mates were dead or not."

Claws went back to talking about last night's apocalyptic event. "For sure, I know that Reba, Janice, and Candu died. I have no idea about Claudette, Runt, Stinky, and Hutch. But there comes Mica, Fleet and Magril," she said suddenly, noticing the Southern Pack Alpha and the two Northern Pack Alphas coming over the cliff slowly. Fleet was leading the two pregnant females, Mica and Magril, along slowly. They were just as much pregnant as Claws was, and could go in to labor anytime in the next few days to the next few weeks. This stress on them was not good—it could cause them to go into labor early and give birth to premature puppies if they did not relax. Fleet was trying to keep his sister and half sister-in-law calm as he lead them to the group for that reason alone. He knew it was bad on the unborn puppies whom were almost fully developed. Scar was trying to keep his very pregnant mate, Claws, calm, too, also for the same reason. It was common sense for wolves to know how stress negatively affected unborn puppies, when they were still in their mothers' wombs.

"Oh, Stinky!" Mica screamed when she saw the corpse that could possibly be her mate. Fleet instructed her not to run over there, that if she tripped, she could do extreme damage to her large belly. She listened, but did not hesitate to rush over to where Stinky could possibly be lying…dead. "No…no…Stinky…Stinky!" she wailed miserably. "How could this happen? First Magril loses Liam, now Fleet and I lose Claudette and Stinky?! What did we do to deserve this?" She seemed to be asking everyone, yet it was a rhetorical question at the same time. Mica did not want any of them to answer the question because they all knew the answer already—nothing. They had done nothing to deserve this…or had they? They knew that the world had ended last night, and the only known survivors were right here at what used to be The Howling Rock.

Mica began to week along with Kate, Humphrey, and Princess, even when some of the wolves picked up the scents of three more wolves approaching. They were coming around the bend right now, sounding as if they were in a dead run toward the sound of other wolves. They appeared and it was—

—Claudette, Runt and Stinky! The three children of Kate and Humphrey whom everyone thought were dead.

"Princess!" Runt almost cried with joy.

"Fleet!" Claudette cried.

"Mica!" Stinky cried.

Everyone who was mourning the bodies awoke with a start, and they cried the names of the three adolescents who had seemingly appeared out of nowhere.

Stuttering, Princess spoke for everyone. "If you three are alive…then w-who are these three?" she asked.

"The female is Scarlet," Mica said, recognizing her. "Scarlet is an old friend of mine who I met when I'd attended Alpha school so many years ago. She's an Eastern Pack Wolf, I believe." She wiped away tears, both of grief and joy. They were tears of grief because one of her oldest friends was dead, but she was also happy because her mate Stinky was alive and unharmed. She was not a widow, nor was Princess! Fleet was not a widower, either. However, unfortunately, they could say the same about Magril, who had seen Liam's death. The ground had split open right next to where he had been standing, and lava erupted out. The force of the earthquake had knocked Liam to the ground, and made him unable to get up because of it going on. Because he had been on the ground, the splashing lava had been able to reach him, and it had destroyed the lower half of his body before Magril's amber eyes.

"W-who are the other two?" Kate stammered.

"I don't know, but they're not Runt and Stinky," Fleet said.

"What about Winston, Eve, and Tony?" Magril asked.

"Dad and Tony are dead," Lilly answered, crying. "Garth and I…w-we found them around the bend—not the one you came around from the other side." We didn't find mother's body, and please, please tell me that none of you did…"

"No," said Mica. "We didn't, thankfully. Since we didn't find her body, we can assume that Eve's still alive."

Candy and Sweets came into view, visibly shaken by what had happened. They had just told Salty and Mooch, their mates, that they were pregnant, and then the ground split open, and swallowed their mates up. Candy and Sweets had seen Salty and Mooch burn up in the lava before they had run for their lives. Salty had been Sweets's mate, and Mooch had been Candy's mate. No one else knew the two friends were pregnant, but they announced that now.

Garth was stoned faced now—the death of his father Tony and father-in-law Winston was just hitting him. The realization of his father being dead shocked him so much that he did not even want to move. Lilly, on the other hand, lost her head when the deaths of Winston and Tony finally hit them. If Eve was dead, she and Kate would be orphans, and Garth already was an orphan. It did not matter if they were adults. They lost their parents to unnatural causes, and that would make them orphans. Neither of them could have imagined the possibility that they would become orphans, let alone because the world ended! Garth had already lost his mother to diseased years ago, when he was nothing more than a half-naked puppy whose eyes and ears had just started functioning. The first thing he had seen was his mother lying on her deathbed after, remarkably, giving birth to a little of five, four of which had been stillborn, before she died. The first thing Garth had ever heard was his mother choking as she coughed up blood, and then breathed her last breaths. His life had begun as hell and now it was hell again, with his father and his mate's father DEAD!

It was a scary feeling for them to learn that they had possibly lost all of their parents, every single one of these wolves who had not already. Claws and Scar's parents died two years ago, but everyone else's had still been alive, and at The Howling Rock when it collapsed, including Mica's parents, Banja and Griffin, and they were Southern Pack Wolves.

Everyone took one last look at the destroyed bodies of all the wolves the survivors had known before they turned to leave The Howling Rock for the last time.

Garth was standing, alone, a few feet from the water-flooded crevices in the ground, still crying over the death of Winston and Tony, especially the latter, Tony. Tony had been the only family he had left, just taking into account wolves directly related to him, and now he had no blood relatives left. He was an orphan who had no one left but his mate, Lilly, and anyone related else related to him through her, such as Kate, Humphrey, and Claudette. Running water usually had a calming effect on Garth, but it did not this time. Garth looked down at his large paws, and noticed his tears hitting the rock.

Entirely unexpectedly, the ground began violently shaking. Shaking so violently that it horrified the other surviving wolves into looking at each other with confusion. Then it happened. A massive crack split through the ground, quickly flooding with water. All of the wolves jumped out of the way just in time. All except for one wolf made it: Garth. The newly formed crack in the ground reached too quickly for him to move. The land he had been standing on seconds earlier was now up in the air, along with Garth, launching him right into the running water.

The other survivors arrived to see Garth forced into a massive underwater boulder by the powerful waves. He yelped, disappearing under the surface and not resurfacing. The water filled with blood after his head had collided with the rock. Garth's blood was also on the boulder, but the rapids quickly washed it away, and dissolved the blood in the water.

Lilly screamed at the top of her lungs. It was a scream like no other wolf had let out before. Bloodcurdling was not even good enough word to describe it. "GARTH!" Lilly ran to the edge, but Princess and a very pregnant Claws, through some remarkable feat, both extremely powerful wolves, pregnant or not, managed to snatch onto Lilly, pull her back, and then hold her back without losing their grip on her. Lilly was struggling but they managed to hold her back despite that.

"We have to leave, NOW!" Princess said forcefully. "'m sorry about Garth, I really am, but if you go that way—" She referred to the water with her dominant paw, the right one. "—you'll end up like just him!"


	4. Scava

**Chapter 3**

**Scava**

It was three days since the now fourteen surviving wolves had witnessed the possible death of Lilly's mate, Garth. They had gone to the Eastern Wolf Pack's Territory, far from The Howling Rock. They had found each other before losing Garth, who had just mated with Lilly and gotten her pregnant before possibly dying.

There were a few wolves they assumed were dead, but they really had no idea about their actual fates: Garth, Eve, Hutch, Janice and a few other wolves from the four wolf packs—Eastern, Western, Northern, and Southern. Garth washed in a rapidly flowing, formerly subterranean river away shortly before they had left The Howling Rock, while Eve had disappeared after Winston and Tony died, as did Hutch. Janice, one of two Western Pack Wolves who were vegetarians, had fled after her best and oldest friend Reba died. The fourteen survivors had not seen Garth's body floating in the river after he had fallen into the water, and it washed him away. That gave them a bit of hope that he could still be alive, until they had seen his blood from crashing into a boulder. Seeing Garth's blood had all but destroyed that hope, however.

In the Eastern Wolf Pack's Territory, there was only was place that was not in ruins now. That was the den of Claws and Scar, a pair of married Eastern Wolf Pack Betas, and two of the fourteen survivors of last night's apocalyptic event. Not that they knew it yet, but the world had ended last night, but were only assuming it was just Jasper Park that the earthquake had affected, and not the entire country of Canada, in addition the entire world. Therefore, the fourteen wolves were making Claws and Scar's den into a home for all of the just for this one night. They could only pray for the best, that there would not be another earthquake. A cave was the absolute worst place to be during an earthquake. The most powerful earthquake in history was fifty-two years ago on May 22, 1960 in Valdivia, Chile, South American. Humans called it the "1960 Valdivia earthquake," a 9.5 magnitude earthquake that killed anywhere from 2,230 to 6,000 people. Not that these wolves knew how to measure the magnitude of earthquakes, but the one that had occurred last night, worldwide, was an 11.5 magnitude earthquake, meaning it was twenty times more powerful than the 9.5 magnitude earthquake from 1960. That was off the moment magnitude scales, which maxed out at 10.0.

Although it was three days since she lost Garth, a pregnant Lilly was understandingly mourning her mate, weeping at the backside of the cave. She had her own backside facing the other thirteen wolves, as she cried into her paws. For some unknown reason, she could not bear to look at the other wolves. They all reminded her off Garth, even the females, not that any of the other thirteen wolves even remotely resembled him. In addition, whenever someone came over to console her, even her own sister, whom she loved dearly, she turned him or her away without even looking to see who he or she were. She fell asleep in this position.

* * *

An hour-long nap had a positive effect on Lilly. She still missed Garth, obviously, but at least she could bear to look at the other thirteen wolves without them reminding her of Garth. The wolves had quietly talked about the possibility of Garth, Eve, Hutch, and Janice being alive yet. They had found no bodies of those three, nor had they found any signs of them being dead. No blood. Nothing. Nevertheless, they had seen Garth washed away and his blood in the water, and on the boulder he had collided with before vanishing. However, they never could be sure about whether Garth was dead or not. He could still be alive, and so could Eve, Hutch, and Janice. There was more evidence pointing toward all four of those wolves being alive rather than being dead.

The fourteen wolves were all sure about one thing, though: they felt as if they were lost without Garth, Eve, Hutch, and Janice, even the wolves who had the littlest connection with them, such as Mica, Fleet, and Magril. It had to do with the fact that so many of their friends, family, and relatives had died in one night. Therefore, if there were four wolves who were still alive (no matter who they were) then it hurt these fourteen survivors of the hundreds upon hundreds of wolves who had been in Jasper before the world ended.

Lilly's nap gave the other thirteen wolves an idea. They had not slept since the world ended, not that they knew it had…yet. They were all exhausted. Lilly was the least tired of the fourteen, since she had slept the night on which the world ended, after getting stoned, but she was still too tired to walk. So were Candy and Sweets, and most of the other survivors who had found Lilly and Garth.

The only one of them who was not exhausted was Princess, who had the most endurance of the wolves, and had sleep after howling with runt before all hell had broken loose. Therefore, she had agreed to watch over the group as they slept. Princess was used to this task after all the time she had lived in Banff, as an Alpha of her father's pack. Although Princess had been an Alpha in her pack since her days as an Eastern Pack Wolf in Jasper and after King had taken many of those Alphas to Banff to start a new, Alpha-only pack, that had changed after she betrayed him to help return Runt to the Jasper wolves.

Princess thought about her hellish life for five minutes until she heard something that distracted her from that, and brought her back to focusing on keeping watch. She heard the rusting of leaves and then a small tree branch cracking. That immediately put her on a better alert than before. Princess's hackles, ears, and tail rose. She showed her teeth, and began snarling. She walked away from the mouth of the den, just enough to see in all directions, but not enough for anyone to slip into the cave.

"Whoever is out there," the big female wolf commanded loudly, "had better show him- or herself _now_ or I will find you. You don't want me to find you because I will tear out your eyeballs if I do."

A male wolf came out of the grass immediately after Princess uttered her brief yet convincingly brutal threat. He was much smaller than Princess, about the size of Kate. He was shaking with fear, not just because of her threat, but because he had not expected to ever meet a female wolf who was much larger than he was.

"Get on the ground," Princess commanded. "I'll do whatever I must to protect what is left of my pack from strangers like you." The stranger listened to her and lay down immediately. Princess left her post now, positive that this black-colored wolf was sure. She towered over him. "Now, what is your name?"

The wolf did not say anything until Princess cuffed him _hard_ on the top of his head.

"Scava," he almost whimpered. This female wolf truly terrified him.

"Where are you from, Scava?"

"Red…Red Deer P-Park," he stuttered, lying just to save his own skin. If Scava told her that he was from Banff, just as she was, then Princess, whom he remembered from his pre-adolescent days, then she would not hesitate to hill him.

Princess relaxed. Her hackles, ears, and tail went back down, a little. She had expected this wolf to say he was from Banff, which he was. Princess would have killed him, she thought, in that case. Of course, why on Earth would she trust any wolf who was a stranger if she did not know him? Just because he had not told her he was from Banff did not mean he could not prove to be a threat to her friends and relatives later. One could never know whom they could or could not trust when strangers were in question. Yes, wolves from Red Deer Park were good wolves. Nevertheless, could any stranger stay that way after such an event happened less than a full day ago? It hardly seemed possible, honestly.

"Get up," Princess ordered the wolf who she realized had dark gray fur, not black fur. Scava stood up, his legs still shaking. There was still some feel showing in his yellow eyes. "Why on Earth are you so damn nervous?" she asked him. "I'm not going to kill you for sneaking up on me just because you were curious about the chance of other survivors. I would've done the same if I was you," she added. "Now stop shaking and whimpering—you look more like a punished puppy than an adult wolf, for crying out loud."

"Y-you're so much larger than me," Scava said. "I've never met a female wolf who is larger than I am." Princess snapped, and cuffed him across his head with her right paw. He immediately apologized. That had not been his intention. "I didn't mean to offend you by saying that. I was being honest, not offensive."

"If you want to save your eyeballs and your throat, Scava," she said slowly, "and save your chance to have puppies in the future, you'll just shut your mouth now and drop the subject." She was snarling at him just for, in her mind, insulting her so blatantly. "I once gutted a wolf for saying something like there—literally. I tore all of his guts out and sorted them based on which bodily system they belonged. Digestive, Reproductive, Circularity, Respiratory…" She listed off each bodily system of organs a wolf had, including the nervous system, which included the brain and spinal column. "I'm sure you don't want this bitch to tear all of your guts out, do you, Scava?" Princess called herself a "bitch" primarily because she was a female wolf, and a "bitch" was a female dog [in heat]. Of course, she was not in heat, not even horny, nor was she pregnant, but she was still a female dog—a female wolf. However, the word "bitch" also described her personality when she was in a foul mood.

"N-no…no…I don't," Scava yelped. "I'm sorry if I offended you by saying that. That was the last thing I intended to do." Then he said he would stop talking about it.

"Good." Princess narrowed her brown eyes.

"Are you alone?" Scava asked.

"No. There's fourteen of us," Princess said.

"Can I join you, then?" the dark gray wolf asked. "I've been all alone since Red Deer Park was destroyed. I've been alone for three-and-a-half days. I lost everything, including my family, my mate, and our pups. T-they had been only two months old…" He wiped away tears with his front right paw. "I don't want to be alone in this hellhole any longer."

"Scava," Princess said, "Hell is not a bad enough word to describe this new world. I wish it was—maybe some of our friends and relatives wouldn't have died in so many numbers in a single day. You'll have to speak with our pack leaders Kate and Humphrey first, but I don't see any reason why you can't join us…" She was going to say "yet" but she managed to stop herself.

* * *

"Princess, who is that wolf following you?" Kate asked with concern. The wolves were all immediately on alert because of the stranger, whose scent had woke them all up.

"His name is Scava," she said, "and he is going to explain himself to you."

The dark gray wolf had to fight back his own tears as he recounted his story for a second time, after having to do it once for Princess. It not only broke Scava's heart to tell his story a second time, but it broke the hearts of these survivors to hear it for the first time. It would be almost cruel of them to turn Scava away, rather than join him. He was just like them in the fact that he had gone through hell in the past three days and that he had lost everything he ever knew.

Kate approached Scava carefully, slowly. "Scava, you are welcome to join us. No wolf—let me correct himself: no one should have to travel alone through this hellish word."


	5. The Horrifying Reality

**Chapter 4**

**The Horrifying Reality**

Lilly was setting down, tapping her right paw rapidly on the stone that the fifteen wolves were resting on. She was whimpering and her eyes were watering. Kate asked her what was wrong.

"My bladder is about to explode," Lilly cried, "but I don't want to go anywhere alone. Yet I feel like it would be embarrassing to ask in front of a stranger…" Scava immediately assured Lilly it did not offend him any, if she asked about such a thing.

"Princess and Sweets can go with you, if you want someone to go with you," Claws said, rather than Kate. "Princess won't let anything happen to you, nor will she be offended by anything she hears, nor wound Sweets…to be both of those."

"I'll keep watch for any possible danger," Princess said.

"And we won't look," Sweets assured her. "We know how sh-sensitive to you." She almost said shy, but changed that to avoid the risk of offending Lilly, who was truly a shy wolf.

* * *

Lilly told Princess and Sweets that the bushes looked like a good place for her to relieve herself, and the three females disappeared through it. Lilly had a shocked look on her innocent face when Princess and Sweets came into the clearing, and then stopped in their tracks. There was a yellow puddle underneath Lilly, between her hind legs, who unexpectedly screamed before either of them noticed the puddle. All three of them forgot all about the puddle when the other two females saw why Lilly was screaming.

The rest of the wolves, eleven of them, darted through the pushes, and stopped right behind the three females when they saw it, too.

There was a wolf lying on the ground on his belly. He was bleeding heavily from an injury inflicted by the large, sharp rock not far from his body. He must have pulled it out, doing more damage than it would have done, if he had left it alone instead, in the process. The stranger was spitting up blood, wheezing heavily, and groaning painfully. Claws realized the other problems, besides the gash in his body caused by the sharp rock, and let the others know about it. This wolf's back was broken and his sides gashed open. Boulders tossed around by the earthquake were clearly the cause of the broken back. Wolverines were clearly the cash of all the gashes. Wolverines were not afraid to attack a lone wolf, wounded or not.

The dying male wolf was a rogue wolf from Banff whom Princess recognized as Geoff, the former best friend of her old friend Melissa. Melissa died in the earthquake three days ago, in the same way Garth supposedly did, only she did not know how to swim, unlike most wolves, and drowned before Princess had been able to help her. He uttered six words before death grasped a hold of him. "Get…out…of…here…rabid…wolverines…" His head fell to the ground, splashing the pool of his own blood in the process. Princess never had liked Geoff, a brutal wolf, even for a rogue from King's pack, but it was now time to put grudges and hates of anyone aside. She closed his green eyes with her front right paw, and then they buried him as best they could before leaving the soft ground that could quickly turn out to be quicksand, for all they knew.

"I think it is time we left Jasper Park all together," Scar said. "Surely nothing here is safe anymore, or worth sticking around for, either. If we don't leave tonight, we'd better do so in the morning. The truth is that our search for survivors is in vain. We've only found dead and dying wolves so far, and now this one said there're rabid wolverines in the area. Wolves aren't something you want to mess around with, in case you didn't notice. When we lived in the Eastern Territory, wolverines killed more wolf pups than disease killed wolves in general. More of us will die if we don't leave by morning, I fear."

* * *

In the morning, the fifteen wolves woke up to the ground violently shaking…again! The landscape was splitting open in about every imaginable direction. They did not know where to run without almost falling into a newly formed. Or the newly forming chasms, ditches, or rivers of lava, either. The lava that was splattering up from some of these holes in the ground did not help matters any!

The fifteen wolves ran around in frenzied panicking for about two minutes before the powerful earthquake suddenly stopped. Remarkably, no one was wounded or dead. They all met on the hill under a tree with large vines growing from the canopy.

"I told you this place wasn't safe…" Scar said, his voice shaking. He was standing on a flat slab of granite by a low hanging vine.

"Knock it off, Scar!" Claws hissed at him. "We don't need any of that caribou scat! Everyone is shaken up enough by everything that's happened in the past four days! We don't need any more paranoia now. And for crying out loud, get away from that edge before you—"

There was a loud cracking sound and then an explosion of grass, stone, and soil as the ledge literally fell apart beneath Scar's paws. There was a scream—it was Scar. When the cloud of dust finally cleared, and everyone stopped coughing, fourteen of the wolves ran to the edge of the hill, not even remembering that it could fall apart again.

Claws screamed louder than anyone else did. Scar's neck was caught in the vine he had been standing next to only seconds before. He was dead. The impact of the vine falling after it had wrapped around his neck had killed Scar instantly. They would never forget this bloody, gruesome scene. Most of them just walked away from the scene, unable to bear the sight of their dead friend. Claws did not—

—she collapsed to the ground, on the knees of her kind legs, and began screaming in agony until she buried her face in the soil as the other females consoled her. She did not notice them or anything else but her dead mate's bleeding corpse hanging from the vine that had broken his neck.


	6. Tension

**Chapter 5**

**Tension**

"But where can we even go in Canada that hasn't been destroyed yet?" Candy asked. She and her best friend Sweets were lying down on either side of Claws, whose head was lying on her massive paws. Claws had cried herself to sleep over the sudden death of her mate Scar, which she had witnessed. Candy and Sweets had their fluffy tails resting over Claws's back. They were hoping that their actions would calm her down…a little, at least.

"I heard about an island that is to the north of here," Scava said, "across a large bay. The island is called 'Baffin Island,' I believe."

"Who told you that?" Humphrey interrupted him.

Scava hesitated to answer by looking up and around in the sky as if he was looking for an answer. His eyes settled on a tree branch of an oak tree. The other wolves looked up to it, too. "He did." Scava was referring to a large crow who was minding his own business, cawing on occasion.

Kate trotted forward to speak with the crow. She pointed her muzzle up to the branch. "Can you tell us more about this island?" she called up to the crow.

The crow cawed loudly. "It is a large island across what the humans call 'Hudson Bay.' I spoke with two vultures who had been following some wolves north. They said Baffin Island was where all the survivors were heading."

"We've never gone that far north from Jasper before," Lilly said. "How far is it from here? The bay and the island, I mean?"

"And what exactly is it we survived?" Magril asked.

"You survived the end of the world, according to the vultures," the crow said. The response he received was a gasp from all the wolves, who muttered amongst each other about that until he cawed again, effectively silencing the panicked wolves. His cawing woke Claws up, who stared at him angrily until Mica told her what they had survived. That made her shocked more than angry or any other emotion.

"The shore of Hudson Bay is 1,323 miles from here in Jasper Park," the crow said. "It's another 785 miles from the shore of the bay to Baffin Island. That's 2,108 miles all together."

"2,108 miles?!" The wolves screamed in unison, except for Scava, who the crow had told all this information before he met the Jasper wolves.

"Are you kidding me?!" Princess roared. "You damn stupid bird. Do you really expect us to survive a 2,108-mile journey on foot? I know we're bound to find water, but what about food? Is there even enough caribou or other animals on the way there to feed fourteen wolves? Will the island even be there when or if we find it, more importantly?"

"Yes," the crow answered. "You'll find enough food on the way there to keep you fourteen wolves nourished. And, yes, the island is still there. What worries me is none of that but the journey there itself. Do any of you even realize how broken the landscape could be, considering how bad things are here? And have you considered how many, if any of you, will make it there, hmm?"

"Listen to me, damn you," Princess snapped. "Wolves normally travel thirty miles a day, under ideal conditions. It would take us seventy days and two hours to get that far on foot, under ideal conditions, given that number! If we travel double that in a day, which is possible, for even pregnant wolves, we'll take thirty-five days and one hour to get there!"

Claws began crying. She ignored what Princess said. That last ominous sentence out of the crow's beak brought back memories of Scar's gruesome death, which was reminiscent of suicide, even though he not hung himself. "Just shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up!" Claws screamed repeatedly until Candy and Sweets managed to calm her down.

"Enough of that shit out of you, you fool!" Princess furiously clawed up the tree trunk in a futile attempt to reach the crow. She was so angry that she forgot how to climb the tree. That was something Runt had taught her how to do perfectly after she became a member of his pack. "We don't need any more talk about DEATH!" Her voice rose until she was shouting, and then screaming.

While most of the female wolves tried to comfort Claws, Scava, Humphrey, and Princess continued speaking with the stupid fucking crow who she wanted to kill so badly. Princess wanted to kill this damn thing, this annoying little shit.

"Is there anything else we need to know about the journey?" Humphrey asked, as Princess steamed, ranting profanely in a whisper and in her thoughts, about this fucking crow. "Is there any obstacles, hazards, and so on we need to worry about?"

"There is one thing," the crow said. "An area about a hundred miles from here that is a low-land ditch filled with carbon dioxide leaking out of a crack in the ground. Carbon dioxide is a toxic volcanic gas that can kill you if you breathe in too much."

"Thank you for the information," Scava said.

"I have another question for you," Princess seethed. The crow nodded regardless. "What is your name?"

Before the crow could speak, frantic shouting from the bushes behind the tree he was in interrupted him. None of them, the wolves or the crow, could see what was going on in the bushes.

The wolves ran through the bushes and the crow followed them immediately. This time, they found their friends surrounding not the body of another dying rogue but the body of one of their friends—who was dying. It was Janice. She was naked of all her fur, which fire must have burned off. Her exposed skin was charred, wrinkled, and covered in soot. She was in a lot of pain, so much pain that she clearly had not worried about cleaning herself, and now she was dying! Everyone could tell this was Janice, except for Scava and the crow, even if fire had burned her naked.

"Janice, Janice!" Kate cried frantically. "Wha-what happened?"

"I-I w-was a-at our secret spot with Reba and Shakey how-howling," she cried painfully, "when the ground split open and swallowed Shakey. I-I saw lava…b-burn Reba in half before my e-eyes…th-then hot steam fr-from the gr-ground spot up and burned all of my f-fur off!" She screamed because of how bad the pain was, as she laid on this hard ground. She was lying on solid granite.

Everyone gasped when Janice began coughing up blood, she began convulsing, and shaking, and then she was gone. Kate shut Janice's brown eyes. The wolves, through tears—except for Scava, of course, since he didn't know Janice that much, but still, he remained silent and showed his respect for the deceased wolf—said their goodbyes, and everyone howled mournfully. They did not notice that Scava was not howling with them but scowling angrily. Princess noticed, but said nothing, and he did not notice that she had seen he was not howling. She would not confront him about it yet.

* * *

The wolves howling seemed to have lasted for hours they had howled so mournfully, but the reality was that they had only howled for ten minutes before burying Janice. They left soon as they each left a dahlia, Janice's favorite kind of flower, on her shallow grave.

They were sick of all this death. Although they were still in Jasper Park, the fifteen survivors, including the crow, had left the valley where the four wolf packs had lived. They were leaving behind what was the birthplace of them all, except for Scava and Princess, whom were both from Banff.

Knowing that The Howling Rock and the waterfalls were entirely gone, destroyed by the 11.5 earthquake, with the bridge just as likely destroyed, too, their only potential option was the park rangers' station.

The park rangers' station was there still, but the park rangers were nowhere to be found, it seemed, when the wolves arrived. Of course, the Jasper wolves had nothing to worry about yet. The park rangers would never harm or kill them, because they knew that these wolves were peaceful, and would never hurt anywhere but what threatened them first, and the rangers would never do that. Wolves from the valley used to come here, always, before the wounded ended, and the park rangers had been happy to see them.

Looking around, the wolves saw how devastated the landscape was here, as well. Many of the fir and pine trees around it had fallen down, and the ground was split open in many places. At least the park rangers' station itself was still there—that was what the wolves had been hoping for now. They were going to use it as refuge for a few days, whether the rangers were here or not, dead or alive.

The fourteen wolves treaded carefully toward the cabin, just as the crow flew carefully toward it, not knowing what environmental disaster would happen next. Maybe they ground would open up again and swallow all the wolves, and then they would not have to suffer through this hell anymore. Of course, they were hoping that would not happen, but they could not predict anything anymore.

Kate and Lilly went with Princess to the vehicle was parked between two of the logs lying near the tree line that made up the parking lot. The other vehicle was a pick-up truck. Although the pick-up truck was empty, there seemed to be something in the front seats of the jeep. Princess put her front legs on the side step of the jeep, then quickly put them on the top and pulled her hind legs up on the step. She looked into the seats to a sight that gave her a queasy feeling in her stomach. She felt her last meal rising up her gullet.

The two park rangers were dead in the front seats of the jeep, with deep gashes in their throats and arms. It was teeth marks. Wolf teeth! Princess obviously knew that. There was blood all over the front part of the jeep, including the hood, the seats, and even the hunting rifle on the gun rack behind the dead humans. Obviously neither of the rangers had had a chance to get to their gun before the wolf had gotten a hold of them, or even before they had seen it.

Princess almost fell flat on her back, off the side of the jeep; this gruesome discovery shocked her so much. Luckily, Kate and Lilly had been right there and caught the larger female before she landed on the ground. They let her go and before the sisters could ask her what was wrong, Princess ran off and began vomiting not far away on the parking lot. The usually strong-willed wolf lost her composure but regained it again three minutes later.

Princess wiped the vomit off her muzzle with her right paw then warned her fellow survivors to avoid looking in the jeep.

"The park rangers are dead," Princess said. She still sounded ill. "I didn't look at them for very long but I can tell a wolf killed them. I'm sure. Nothing else has teeth like wolves, and that is what the injuries resemble. What I don't know is why a wolf would kill humans." She laid down n the sand. Princess felt too sick to want to stand up. "Not even Banff wolves would do this if they have come this close to Jasper, think we're better off than Banff is. We saw Geoff, even if he's dead now, so they must be here in good numbers. The rogues never traveled alone. I just hope—" She gulped. "—King and Queen aren't here." She refused to address her parents as such. "But they would not kill humans—just attack the rangers because they're unfamiliar humans."

The wolves gasped. This was truly terrifying news for them to hear. "I've never heard of wolves attacking humans before," Candy said. "Why would it happen now, even if it was the rogues?"

"There is no reason for wolves to attack and kill such kind humans," Sweets added.

"I don't know," Princess said, "and I don't want to find out. What I do know is this: we should not stay here more than one night. There is a great risk of it being dangerous, if a wolf managed to kill both of the park rangers."

"'A risk of being danger'?" Scava interrupted. "The whole damn world is dangerous now. I think talking the risk of being found by some murderous wolf is safer than traveling in this world, yet we're considering traveling 2,108 miles across Canada." Then he muttered, "Damn stupid female."

Princess heard him, snarled, and then lunged at Scava. She pinned him to the ground with nothing more than her front paws on his chest. Princess dwarfed Scava in size and in temper. "What do you say to me?" she asked rhetorically, putting her exposed fangs closer to his throat. "Don't answer that. I heard you clearly. Just know this, Scava: insult me again and I will split you open, and I will watch you die."

"That's enough, Princess," Humphrey said.

"No, Humphrey," Kate, who had more authority than him, being an Alpha, and him being an Omega, corrected him. "That is enough out of Scava." She turned to the wolf who was still on his back, even though Princess had reluctantly backed off. "Get up." Scava sat up and Kate continued. "I can tell you don't like Princess and that is fine if you wish to travel those 2,100 miles to Baffin Island alone. I made clear when Humphrey and I allowed you to travel with us that if you wanted to stay with us, you would have to coexist with us. Keep up this threatening of our friends and relatives and you'll only have two options. The first is one we can all agree on: we'll just leave you behind. If you make it too the island, good for you: you'll be living with whomever you can find _except for us_. If you die, you die. We won't miss you because we hardly know you.

"The second option is one Princess will personally enjoy." Princess had a wicked grin on her face. "We'll leave her alone with you and let her do whatever she wishes to you. I'm sure she'll be brutal with you. I'm going to be honest, Scava, when I say that I'm starting to not like you at all."

"Why ever not?" he asked. Scava's ears were drooping.

"You're a fucking scumbag," Princess said sourly.

"I just don't. I have poor feelings about you." Kate changed the subject. "Now…what is your decision? Do you want to stay with us? To be alone? Or to be slaughtered?"

_Tear out your damned throat,_ Scava thought. Instead, he said, "I'll go with you..."


	7. Murder

**Chapter 6**

**Murder**

And so, once again, Kate and Humphrey allowed the stranger wolf called Scava to stay with the thirteen other survivors. But their trust of him was going away with each day since they'd met him, especially after he'd said Princess was a "Damn stupid female." If Princess had had her way with him the day before, she would've mutilated him.

Only because it was getting closer to nightfall and the fourteen wolves were getting tired, they had agreed to spend the night in the park ranger's station. They were on edge, though, because the two park rangers of Jasper Park had been found dead by Princess, killed by a wolf, in their own Jeep. The fact that the door to the cabin had been left open was not anymore comforting. While Kate, Lilly, Scava, Humphrey, Sweets, Candy, and all of the adolescent wolves slept, Princess and Claws were keeping watch for intruders. Kate, Lilly, and Humphrey were sleeping in one of the bedrooms, Sweets and Candy in another, and Claudette, Stinky, Runt, Mica, Fleet, and Magril in the third. If Princess and Claws changed shifts, they would sleep in the rooms of whoever took their place for the watch. Much to the disappointment of Princess, Scava had been allowed to sleep in the cabin's office.

Princess was standing up while a very pregnant Claws was lying on her side, her large belly revealed. She appeared to be larger than Princess was because of her belly. Their plan was for Princess to fight any intruder or intruders, if something did happen, while Claws ran to warn the other wolves who were sleeping in the bedrooms, and to just hide in the first one she went to while the other wolves would go help Princess. That was the purpose of there being two wolves on watch, now, so either both of them could fight off intruders if they were capable, or so one of them could fight and the other warned the others if one of them was not capable to fight. And Claws, obviously, was the one who was not capable to fight because she was pregnant. Any other time, she would've been the best choice for someone to do the fighting, next to Princess.

* * *

An hour into their watch, nothing was happening or had happened, so Princess and Claws decided talk to each other to keep from getting bored on the watch.

Princess suggested that they should keep their voices low so they wouldn't wake up the twelve wolves who were finally sleeping soundly. And it would be a personal conversation between the two females—one that the others didn't need to ear, and that she didn't want any of them, especially that bastard Scava, to hear.

"Claws," Princess whispered. "This is something I have not told anyone yet, but I had intended to do so before the world ended." The wolves hadn't know that the world ended until they had met that crow the day before, and he told them what some vultures had said about it being like this all over Canada, that the world had, in fact, ended. "It happened after the first time I ever went to The Howling Rock, not long before it collapsed it on itself. Everyone, you included, knows how Runt and I had been spending a lot of time together ever since we defeated King and his pack last year, and since he had offered me those yellow daises." Princess was still wearing those very flowers in her mane. They had been preserved by Reba and Janice, before their deaths, by using some special mixture that permanently preserved plants, and made it so they didn't need to be cared for. It made them nothing more than artificial flowers. "Well…we had fallen in love before the final battle with the rogues, but we didn't mate until the night the world ended, before so many wolves died."

"What are you saying?" Claws, who was still lying on her side in the same position she had been since agreeing to keep watch, asked.

"That I could be pregnant with Runt's puppies," the former rogue admitted. "I realized it only hours before I first encountered Scava." She lowered her head. "When I had feared Runt was dead, I had missed him for all those hours it had just been you, Scar, and I trying to find other survivors after The Howling Rock had collapsed. I would've done anything to have him back then, and now that he's with us, I don't ever want to lose him…" She had almost said, "Like you lost Scar," but had managed to stop herself before saying it. It would've been insensitive for her say something like that, and for her to even bring up Scar's death again now that Claws had relaxed greatly since that day he died.

"I wish this was just a really bad nightmare that we just can't wake up from yet," Claws whispered, "and not something that is real. I never thought that, when the world did end, that I would be one of the few survivors from Jasper, and maybe even all of Canada."

"It's a shitty early Christmas gift, that is for sure," Princess spat resentfully. "It was only four days from Christmas when the world ended, and now Christmas is tomorrow. That just makes the world ended so much worse than it already is. This is supposed to be the happiest time of the year, damn it, and look what happened! So many of our friends and family died three days ago, which is four days before Christmas!"

Claws's ears perked up before she had a chance to response, and that was why she didn't say any more about that subject. She heard it first, and Princess heard it not long after Claws did. That was the sound of glass shattering. It sounded like it was just around the corner of the tall shelves.

"Go to one of the bedrooms, now, Claws!" Princess ordered in a harsh whisper. She was whispering so the intruder wouldn't hear her. "There is no need to warn the others. I'm sure they all head the glass shatter and that is all the warning they need. Just tell whoever is in the room you go to this: stay in there or find me."

Claws obeyed these orders of her fellow Beta and her friend, and ran into the bedroom where Kate, Lilly, and Humphrey were sleeping. The door shut behind her, and it sounded like locked it, since they had left it open as they slept until now.

Princess carefully went around the shelves the sound of shattering glass came from. She was expecting to catch the intruder red handed, and to kill him, her, or even them, if she had to. But there was nothing there. At least not that she could see. She was peeking around the shelf. There was nothing there but the broken glass. No blood. No fur. Nothing. And the only thing, although it was not very important to the wolves, that had been taken by the intruder(s) was some blue hockey mask that had been on the shelf next to a musical album that read "HOLLYWOOD UNDEAD" in large letters, then smaller letters below it that read "AMERICAN TRAGEDY." There was a picture of six people wearing different masks on it. Princess had noticed there was replicas of those masks, now just five of them, when they had arrived, hanging from hooks on the wall. The blue one was missing.

Princess assumed the burglar, or burglars, had wanted to take all the masks for some unimaginable reason, but him, her, or they, had only had the chance to take one before being scared off by the faint sound of a wolf growling, when she had been talking to Claws, as well as her footsteps.

"Where could they have gone?" Princess wondered aloud in a slow whisper.

* * *

Candy and Sweets were the only wolves who were sleeping in the bedroom they had chosen, the one that was the farthest from the front door of the cabin. They were both sleeping on the bed. Candy was lying on a pillow in front of Sweets, whose tan head was close to her best friend's butt.

Sweets's tan head was hidden from view by Candy's bushy tail, except for her muzzle and some of her long mane. As Candy was snoring quietly in her sleep, Sweets was breathing softly in her sleep. She was breathing so softly that Candy hardly felt her best friend breathing past the part of her butt that was underneath her tail. The only reason Sweets slept with her head underneath Candy's tail was not that she wanted a good view of her best friend's most sensitive area every time she opened her opened her eyes but that she couldn't stand sleeping with her eyes revealed. She felt like there was too much light shining on her eyes, and it affected her sleep negatively. Having Candy's tail over her eyes helped her sleep much better, without disturbing Candy's own sleep too much. It was comparable to how many humans slept with some kind of cotton goggles or something over their eyes.

Tonight was the first time Candy had ever been woken up by Sweets's breath, when she had her under her tail and so close to her butt, for as long as her best friend had slept like this. Candy let out a low yelp then jumped right off the bed. She landed almost silently on the carpeted floor after feeling air blowing past the part of her butt that was underneath her tail, which was much more sensitive than the part above her tail.

Candy sighed with relief as she looked back to see Sweets's head lying right behind where her butt had been lying only ten seconds before. But it was not just Sweets breathing on her butt that had woke her up. Candy had thought she heard glass shattering from the main room of the cabin. The banana yellow-colored wolf left the bedroom, after pushing the door open, and then shut again.

Outside the bedroom, she discovered that Princess and Claws were gone. It seemed that they had been for a few minutes, now. _What's going on?_ She wondered silently. Then she noticed there was shattered glass all over the wooden floor.

Candy looked up, after sniffing the glass, which had Scava's scent on it, albeit faintly. After noticing that the office door where Scava had been sleeping was left open, and he was no longer sleep in there, she got concerned, then noticed the broken window. Her hackles, ears, and tail all rose not just because of the shattered window. But not because she heard...footsteps of a lone wolf come closer. She froze. Candy felt her heart sank, then she immediately went from a defensive posture to a submissive posture. Her eyes dropped, as did her hackles, she tucked her tail between her hind legs, and she hid her teeth, rather than showing them, and she whimpered rather than snarled, as she just had been a few seconds earlier.

She was afraid to open her eyes when the footsteps stopped, and she felt as if there was someone standing in front of her. She could smell the wolf, and feel him breathing on her face. Candy began whimpering even more, and opened her eyes very slowly. She found herself face-to-face with a wolf! His bright yellow eyes were staring her right in her duller yellow, amber eyes. Candy screamed, and then the possibly jumped on her, taking her to the ground. They fought, but he had the greater advantage, being larger and stronger than Candy.

* * *

Princess was upstairs, all alone, looking for the possible intruder, or intruders, when she heard the most bloodcurdling scream she'd ever heard in her life. It came from downstairs and was brief before it suddenly ceased. It had been a female screaming, as well as the sounds of some medium-sized objects being thrown about as two wolves fought. But now there was now an eerie silence in the building as Princess quickly made her way back to the stairs.

"Shit," she cursed as she ran down the stairs at almost full speed.

Princess was greeted by a few trails and pools of blood as soon as she got back downstairs. The blood was all over the area where she and Claws had been on watch, in addition to the area where the shattered window was. Princess slowly trotted around the shelf for a second time. The first thing she saw was the mask that had been missing—the blue one marked with a large "3" on one side of it, and black silhouettes of butterflies on the other side. It was splattered heavily with blood.

The trail continued from where the mask lay on the floor all the way to the shattered window. Now, she saw bits and pieces of flesh floating in large pools of blood. Then when she looked up—

—Princess saw the bloody and mutilated corpse of a banana yellow-colored wolf hanging half way out the window and half way in the window. The body made her scream. She screamed even louder when she realized who it was. Candy.

The rest of the wolves came running out of the bedrooms when they heard Princess screaming. They all stopped dead in their tracks when they saw the gruesome scene. Princess was just realizing something that angered her more than anything else did.

"WHERE IS SCAVA?!" she roared at the top of her of her lungs.

The dark gray wolf came running down the stairs as if someone had called him, only to receive a heavy cuff across the head from Princess. He didn't even have a chance to notice the massacre before being knocked senseless by Princess. Scava noticed it, however, when he landed in the pool of blood that had bits of flesh floating in it. He screamed and jumped up immediately.

"What were you doing upstairs?" Princess asked harshly, in a raspy voice. Her voice was hoarse after all the screaming she had done and after she had roared "Where is Scava?!" "You are gone every time something bad happens!"

Scava cautiously stood up a little more, just to get away from the pool of blood, which was all over his dark gray fur coat. "I-I," he stammered, "went upstairs to find a better place to sleep, but I-I hid when I heard the glass shatter," he began to explain. "I…I should've done something when I h-heard Candy screaming, but I'm just too much of a coward. I'm sorry…"

"You're sorry!" Princess screamed. "How about you tell Candy how sorry you are?! You're as much to blame for her death as I am!"

"I didn't tell the stupid female to leave the bedroom that had been perfectly safe in!" Scava shouted because he was sick of being blamed for everything. "In my eyes, only Candy is to blame for her death." Then he realized how ignorant he was for saying that.

"Bastard!" Sweets cried from the spot where she'd been mourning Candy. "How can you say that about her?!" she wailed.

"Damn you!" Princess roared again.

Scava did not see her next action coming, no did anyone else. Princess's claws cut through the air and then through Scava's flesh. Blood sprayed through the air next as her claws went deep into Scava's face. One of his eyeballs rolled across the floor, as he screamed in agony.

"Get out of my sight, you worthless animal," Princess snarled, showing her fangs. "I'll be sure to pray tonight that you don't survive. But, if through some unfortunate and fucked up twist of fate you do survive, you'll have the option to come with us so long as you stay as far away from Sweets, Claws, and I…now get out of my sight…"


	8. Time to Head North

**Chapter 7**

**Time to Head North**

Scava somehow survived the night, but he did not wake up until after the Jasper Wolves had buried their murdered friend, Candy. None of the wolves acknowledged Scava's existence when he came out of the park rangers' station, specifically Sweets, Candy's best and oldest friend, and Princess, who hated the fucking stupid dark gray wolf more and more every time he saw him. Scava brought more and more misfortune to them every time they saw him, so they paid no attention to him this time, hoping that maybe if they did, nothing else bad would happen. They paid so little attention to him that they didn't even notice he was wearing something over his head to hide his face not only because he was ashamed but mainly to hide his injuries inflicted by Princess last night.

The now thirteen survivors which could very quickly become twelve considering how bad the injuries inflicted to Scava's face by Princess were. She had torn out one of his eyeballs and tore off the right side of his face with it. The group was heading north, but Baffin Island was still about 1,900 miles away from where they were now. They were just leaving the parking lot of the park rangers' station. There had been and still were many times that these wolves wondered how many of them out of the now thirteen will make it to the end of those 1,900 plus miles, if any of them do make it. Scava seemed to be more and more of a bad-luck charm for these survivors ever since he had found them. Ever since they had first met Scava, the originally fourteen survivors from Jasper Park, Garth excluded since he had vanished before they met him, had been dying off in brutal occurrences—one accident and one murder. First, Scar had ended up being choked to death by a vine that was a lot like a noose, and then Candy was murdered, slaughtered by another wolf, probably the same fucking one that had murdered the two park rangers.

Scava, now left with only one eye, his left one, which he had poorer eyesight in than his right eye, was forced to follow the Jasper survivors, rather than travel with them or in front of them. They did not want him to travel in front of him—that would make him think he's more important than they were. They were all blaming Scava for Candy's murder rather than Princess for one reason. Princess had been upstairs looking for the intruder who ended up being Candy's murderer, rather than supposedly going upstairs to "find a better place to sleep" and then "hide from the intruder after hearing the glass shatter," as Scava had claimed he was doing upstairs. They didn't believe him, but, then again, they didn't give a shit what that worthless fucker did anymore. They just hoped went off to die in a fucking hole, or maybe even fucking kill himself over what he did! At least Princess had been willing to look for the intruder rather than supposedly hide from it like the pussy Scava was! Princess had been outsmarted by the intruder, though. If the intruder hadn't been hiding upstairs like she had thought he was—she had followed his scent up the stairs, but it had mysteriously stopped a few feet from the landing of the stairs—then where had he gone so quickly? Did he slip back downstairs and hide somewhere down there without Princess realizing it? And then Candy had happened to come out of her bedroom, for reasons no one would ever know, but it had been to investigate all the commotion, and the intruder killed her so there wouldn't be anyone who had seen him before he left.

_But why did that fuckin' pussyfoot Scava disappear when Candy was killed?_ Princess wondered angrily as she walked. _And why didn't he howl when Scar died, or when Candy died? Wolves always howl for the deceased, whether they know whom they were or not, not just stand there like some like heartless bastard, even if he is one!_

And he would not be stupid enough to attack them after Princess had torn the right side of his face off. All of the Jasper survivors and Scava knew that if he even tried to attack one of them, Princess would be on him so fast that he wouldn't even know she killed him if she tore his throat out, or tore off the rest of his face. She would tear out his throat, castrate him, tear his belly open, and choke him out with his own fucking intestines if she wanted to, and the pack leaders, Kate and Humphrey, didn't care. But they probably didn't give a shit about whether Scava died, or not, just as much as Princess didn't.

The wolves had been traveling for about two hours when Kate decided it was best if the thirteen wolves took a break. Wolves can travel for long distances, just trotting or walking, at about five miles per hour—that is, five miles every hour, or sixty minutes—and they can reach up to twenty-five to thirty-five miles per hour when they have short bursts of energy. Under normal circumstances, wolves could travel anywhere from ten to thirty miles in one day in search of prey, but these were not normal circumstances. They had been traveling 80 miles each day just walking, for the most part. Since they only walked at five miles an hour, that meant the fifteen wolves traveled sixteen hours out of the twenty-four hours that made up a day, and they slept for the other eight hours of the day, which was only at night. The traveled from daylight to nightfall, and they slept until sunrise. They had roughly another 1900 miles left until they reached Baffin Island, so if they traveled at this rate for the rest of the journey, they would be there in 23 days and 18 hours, or a little more than ¾ of a month.

The dozen Jasper wolves were resting altogether while Scava was two or three yards away from them, by a cliff.

_Maybe the fuckin' asshole will jump off,_ Princess thought as she rested her head on her paws.

Kate was resting with Humphrey, Lilly was comforting Sweets over Candy's murder, and, of course, Princess was with Claws, whom she had been close to before the world ended, but had gotten even closer to after it ended, and even more after Scar died. Claudette, Stinky, and Runt were with their mates Fleet, Mica, and Princess. All three of the female halves of these three pairs of wolves were pregnant. Mica and Claudette were a month into the gestation period of their pregnant, as was Claws, and all three of them were due to give birth in about another half month. That was not good because it was going to take them another 23 days and 18 hours to reach Baffin Island. They would be cutting it close by 7 days and 6 hours. It was rare when wolves gave birth to their young during the dead of winter, but it did happen, and the puppies usually survived just as well in the winter as they did in the spring or summer.

Claws was lying on her back by Princess's side, once again, with her head on Princess's tail. She was wide-awake, but she was resting with her eyes closed. The sun was shining directly on her and it made her feel so war. Kate and Sweets were, too, on their bellies after a while, when two different wolves look over the watch. Lilly and Humphrey were now keep a watch for danger, and that could just be Scava, so they were making sure they stole a look at him every once and a while. Princess was also keeping her eyes on Scava, even though she was lying down in a relaxed position. Scava had his back toward the Jasper wolves as he watched the sun with his one good eye. Princess just realized that he was wearing of those masks from the rangers' station. The black cloth mask had a shield on side and the initials "F.M." on the other side. Originally, it had had no eyeholes or hole for his muzzle, but he had torn such holes in it so he could wear the mask properly and comfortably. But why the hell did him have the damned thing? Princess wondered, staring at him for how ridiculous he looked with that mask on. There were better things the dumbass could've taken, but then again, she thought, it was better than having to look at his actual face.

Lilly howled at something flying over them. She had noticed its shadow. They didn't know what kind of bird it was until it landed on a small boulder in the middle of the clearing. The same crow had told them about Baffin Island being a safe haven for the survivors of the apocalyptic event. What did he want now? Hopefully this bird have some good news to tell them now, like during their first encounter with him.

The crow didn't start with any news, if he had anything, but rather he asked a question. "I see that there is only thirteen of you now," he said. "Where are the other two?" The wolves knew he was being sympathetic about asking that. They wouldn't have been angry with him, regardless of how he asked it. He didn't know about the events that caused Candy and Scar's deaths.

"They didn't make it," Claudette said, because she was the most levelheaded member of the group right now, since she hadn't lost anyone except for her grandfathers Winston and Tony, and their uncle Garth, not that they really knew he was dead or not. And Claudette was usually able to keep calm in any kind of situation, even one as hellish as this one. "First, Scar was accidentally choked to death by a vine when the ground he'd been standing on collapsed, and then a wolf broke into the rangers' station and murdered Candy. Your friend Scava is partially responsible because he hadn't done anything to help Princess look for the intruder because he was too cowardly."

The crow was shocked by that last sentence, the one about Scava, since he hadn't ever known Scava to be a coward in the short amount of time he had known the dark gray wolf. "I'm sorry to hear that," he said, "but I do have some good news that may life your spirits a little."

"What?" Sweets asked unpleasantly and cynically. "How could there be any good news in this hellish world?" Claudette whispered to the crow that Candy was Sweets's best and oldest friend, then he understand why she was so unpleasant to him right now.

"I spotted four wolves at the shoreline of the Hudson Bay," the crow explained. "So I'd swooped down to talk to them. They didn't tell me their names, nor did I think to ask, but they did say that there are wolves from Jasper, such as you are. The one female with them seemed to be much older than the two males and the other female with her."

The twelve Jasper wolves' darkened moods, just as the crowd had said they would be, seemed lightened up by this news. Did it mean that Garth, Eve, and Hutch could be alive? But who was the other female? The only females they knew to be still alive were here, not counting the unknown wolves this crow was reporting to them now. Still, they weren't the only survivors after all anymore! It gave them a new determination to reach Baffin Island that they'd not had before now.

Lilly had another question for the crow. "Would you like to fly with us to Baffin Island?" she asked. "You could scout for us and warn us about hazards ahead of us so we can avoid them before we even find them."

The crow cocked his head and closed his eyes in thought. He re-opened his eyes a minute later. "Of course I will," he said. "I've been alone since the world ended. I lost my entire family and every other bird and animal I knew when the world ended. Not even my nest and the tree I'd lived in were spared. Really, about all I have left now is you wolves." Then he added this in a whisper that Scava wouldn't hear, "I've never really liked Scava from the moment I met him, but it was better to have him as my traveling partner than being all alone." They noticed Scava hang his masked head in shame as if he heard them talking about him.

"What is wrong with Scava?" the crow asked suddenly. "Why is he wearing that…thing?"

"Princess took out one of his eyes and the right side of his face for what he didn't," Runt said, "rather, for what he _didn't_ do." Then he explained the events of that bloody night after Candy was murdered. The crow understood Princess's actions, and was not too happy with Scava now.

"What is your name?" Claws asked suddenly. She was still laying on her side, with one front leg lying over it, and the other on the ground. Her hind legs and her tail were stretched out in front of her comfortably.

He thought about it for a minute, but he saw no harm in telling these good wolves his name. "Marco," he said, "my name is Marco."

"Well, Marco," Lilly said. "Is there anything else we need to know about the rest of the journey to Baffin Island? We are heading northeast from here to reach the bay, and then the island."

"Things to know? Like what?" Marco asked.

"Are there any hazards?" Sweets asked.

"Like sinkholes, unstable ground, deadly gas leaks in the ground…?" Princess asked.

"I have not done all that much scouting," he said, "but I have seen a massive sinkhole about a hundred miles from here. Beyond that, there is a small canyon with a crack in the ground that is leaking some sort of toxic gas."

"Is that all?" Stinky asked.

"Not quiet. There are lava pits and mudslides all the way north of here. I have heard from some vultures that there is a hurricane in the bay."

"Sounds great. Really great," Claws said with a sarcastic bite in her tone. "I just can't wait. There's nothing I love more than a damn hurricane," she added sourly.

"Are you up to traveling now, Claws?" Lilly asked the very pregnant wolf.

"Yes, I can walk as long as you want me to," she said, standing up quickly as if to show she was more than capable of walking again. "I don't tire out very easily. Who was always one of the finalists in The Great Wolf Games, in the races, even when I was up against Claudette and Magril. I was that wolf. I may have really put on the pounds since I got pregnant, but that hasn't slowed me down any."

"We're taking off, then!" Princess shouted.

All of the wolves, and their new traveling partner, Marco the crow, took off. They had gone several feet before Scava realized it. He hadn't heard Princess shout that they were leaving. The ashamed and masked wolf yelped then darted off after the group. Scava stopped about three feet behind them, though.

Princess took a brief look at a Scava, without him noticing.

_How stupid he looks_, she thought, _with that damn mask he's wearing. But I guess it is better than having to look at his actual face…_ Princess then thought about how Scava looked faintly familiar, but she couldn't remember why or how, so she let the thought split her mind.


	9. The Gas Station

**Chapter 8**

**The Gas Station**

Kate and Humphrey knew this place—not quiet this specific one, but the building in general—very well. They've been here twice in the past. It was one of the gas stations across the river that separated the city from Jasper. Well, maybe it wasn't the same one, since that was to the southeast of Jasper, but they were going northeast. Maybe the owner of the southern one, Max, owned one to the northeast of Jasper, too?

The first time they had come here was when the pair had hitched a ride in a couple's truck. Well, the RV part of it, anyway. But Humphrey had gotten distracted by a still good but thrown out cupcake when he had left the RV, while the human couple had been buying beer and snacks from the gas station, only to be caught a human when he came out of the back door with a bag of garbage. Of course, since the frosting of the cupcake was white, and it had gotten all Humphrey's mouth, the man had thought he was a rapid wolf. The owner, Max, almost killed them with his shotgun, but he had somehow missed and blew a hole in the fence that surrounded his gas station, allowing them to escape.

The second time Kate and Humphrey went to that gas station was after fleeing Banff with their then puppies Claudette, Stinky, and Runt. They had been seen by Max, again, only that time, the now family of wolves had reminded him of his own family, whom he had been away from because of working that Christmas. He left them alone to go see his own family since there had been no business at all the entire day of Christmas Eve. Max had left in his pick-up truck, but not without leaving the door open, and leaving three bowls of dog food out for the then wolf pups.

Now, the thirteen wolf survivors were greeted with yet another bloody sight. It was Max, the clerk and owner of the southern gas station Kate and Humphrey had been to twice. He was dead, lying on his belly, with his arms and legs sprawled out. There was blood all over the parking lot, but there seemed to be none on max. Max's shotgun lay in a pool of blood, with the man's right hand still attached to the trigger guard, and ripped off from his arm. It had been chewed o by something with sharp teeth, obviously…a wolf! The bite marks all over his body appeared to belong to the same wolf they suspected of killing the two park rangers of Jasper. Why was this wolf, whoever it was, killing humans close to them? Better question: why was he or she killing humans in general? And why did this wolf possibly kill a wolf who was close to them? When they had observed Candy's body, they had noticed the exact same bite barks on her. And they always found similar paw prints in the blood at each scene of these murders. Although not in blood, but rather the soil, they had seen these same prints just before Scar died. Was this wolf following them? Was he or she spying on them? That had to be the case—but why?

Princess cautiously approached Max's body, questioning her sanity for always volunteering to be the one who did this. She had done it with the park rangers, as well as Candy, although she hadn't known what to expect them. She almost did know what to expect this time. She gently paws the man's body, but Max did not stir. She checked his pulse and failed to find it. Princess was now sure he was dead, and she told the others before doing what she did next. She pushed him over with her front legs, then almost unexpectedly, she fainted on the spot.

Her legs fell limp at her sides, for she was flat on her back. The others looked away in disgust so they wouldn't lose their lunch. Food was rare, so vomiting it up all the time was not something they could afford to do, especially the pregnant females. Food was more critical for them more than it was for the males and the non-pregnant females—they needed it for the unborn puppies that were growing inside them. Scava, however, did not look away. Rather, he closed his eyes and seemed to feel sick.

Max's face was brutality mutilated. It was chewed beyond recognition but the wolves who were familiar with him knew that it was Max. His nose was lying, half way chewed to the bone, only a few inches from him. Max's eyeballs were nowhere in sight—not in his sockets or anywhere on the ground. The exact same thing could be said about his mouth. They had been torn off by the wolf, who must've eaten his eyeballs and his lips. His throat had been slashed in deep by the claws of that wolf. The only thing that was recognizable was all of his injuries, which were consistent with those of Candy and the park rangers, and the scent of the wolf they'd picked up at each of these murder scenes, as well as where Scar had died. This wolf's scent had been there, too.

"We need to get inside _now_," Claws said, baring her fangs. She was drooling as if she were in a frenzy about something. "It is not going to be safe at night with this murderous bastard outside." She was failing to sound calm, or even look calm.

Thankfully, Princess had woken up before they decided to go into the gas station or they would've had to carry her in. That wouldn't have been possible, they thought as they went in through the open door, something that worried them. The open door worried them until a thorough search of the gas station made it known that they were the only wolves in here. The scent of the wolf who had killed Max wasn't in here, thankfully. That made them feel a little safer.

But they were surprised to see that Scava had taken his mask off, left it on the floor, and was now puking his guts up in a corner. He finally seemed to care about what was going on. He had not reacted at all to the gruesomeness of the earlier deaths. Maybe the hardened wolf was softened by such a mutilation like what that wolf had done to Max. His injuries inflicted by Princess must've made him think much differently than how he had been.

_Or maybe that jackass is just saving his own skin!_ Princess thought, with so much hate in her heart for this dark gray wolf that she thought she would rip him to pieces at any time after what he didn't do for Candy. Literally, because she would strip his hide if he didn't care about what was going on. But a tried wolf didn't think about such things too much. Princess trotted over to behind the freezer, where she fell asleep in a doggy bed, not caring that it smelled like another dog, probably dead now. She was too tired and too stressed to care if she woke up smelling like a domesticated dog. A bath would always fix that later, she thought, and then fell asleep.

Only three wolves remained awake to talk. Everyone else was sleeping with the wolves he or she'd slept with the last time they had stopped somewhere to sleep for the night. Scava, now down puking, was wearing the same mask again to hide his injuries. Marco, the crow, was perched on a coat hanger by one of the doors, listening to the wolves' conversation. They were unaware that the crow was eavesdropping, thinking that Marco had fallen asleep like the other ten wolves had.

"I feel that we should all sleep tonight," Kate whispered, to avoid waking anyone else up. "I see a solution to someone breaking into this safe haven and killing another one of us."

"What?" Scava asked.

"You see those shutters?" she asked him. Scava nodded in response. "They're made of metal, steel, to be specific. If we can somehow pull them down and lock them, nothing will get in even if the glass breaks."

"What about the doors?" Humphrey asked.

"Simple," Kate said. "We can just take some of these wooden chairs in here and prop them up under the doorknobs. I might seem like I'm exaggerating, but not even a grizzly bear would get through that. Propping up a door with just simple chairs can do much more than you would expect it too. There's nothing to worry about, if we can do all that correctly."

It was a long, difficult task, and not a quiet one—the process woke up all the sleeping wolves—but they managed to get everything done just as Kate had planned. After the three wolves explained to the other ten what happened, they weren't as angry, and fell asleep again. Now, even Scava and Marco, were sleeping, and every one of the survivors were sleeping much more peacefully than they had been before. They were safe from any outside dangers, and they were no inside dangers, except maybe Scava, and Princess, who was about ready to mutilate Scava.

Kate was sleeping not too far from Lilly, but Humphrey was sleeping by Sweets's side so she wouldn't be alone after losing Candy. Princess was sleeping right next to Claws, who was sleeping on a pillow Princess had found in one of the bedrooms upstairs for her. Claws was more comfortable with sleeping on her back than she was with sleeping on her belly. She had her front legs resting on her belly, and her tail was hanging off the edge of the wolf-sized pillow.

Scava would be sleeping alone if it weren't for the crow who was perched on the coat hanger, sleeping. He still had his mask on, of course. The holes he'd torn into the mask allowed him to see out of the one eye he had left, as well as to breathe and talk properly. It also made the mask much more comfortable.

Scava's large, black eyes twitched once, maybe twice, then he woke up. He stood up, stretched, and looked around. He had no idea why he'd woken up, nor did he have an idea why he'd woken up, either. He stopped looking around in confusion when his eyes set upon Princess. How he hated that fucking female. Scava recalled how Princess half called herself a "bitch," referring to female dogs, not her temper. In his mind, Princess was a bitch, but not just a female dog. That was Scava's opinion of Princess ever since she'd clawed out one of his eyes.

Silently, Scava trotted over to where Princess and Claws were sleeping. He had nothing personal against Claws, so he didn't even look at the pregnant wolf as she snored, her breast and large belly rising up and down with each breath. Scava turned to Princess, focusing only on her. He had extended the claws on his right paw, contemplating tearing this bitch's face off just like she'd done to him. Then she'd have to wear one of these damn masks too!

He pointed the sharpest of his claws at Princess's eyeball. But then Scava thought of something. There was no way for the murderer of Candy, Max, and the park rangers getting into this gas station. And none of them other than Scava had anything against Princess. If he did this, not only would she possible catch him after making one of her eyeballs go *pop*, then he'd be the primary suspect. And he could be seen by one of the Jasper wolves. They were all within eyesight and hearing range of each other. Scava hacked off, as much as he didn't want to.

_I'll get you very soon,_ Scava thought. _I won't let you get away with taking my eye, you bitch._

Then Scava walked back to his sleeping area and fell back asleep. He would enjoy a very violent dream about torturing Princess before murdering her before he woke up the next morning.


	10. Kate's Nightmare

**Chapter 9**

**Kate's Nightmare**

Kate and the other twelve survivors—the wolves known as Scava, Lilly, Humphrey, Princess, Claws, Claudette, Runt, Stinky, Mica, Fleet, Magril, and Sweets and the crow known as Marco—were gathered together around a campfire. It had been started by the wolves, but the site where they started it had been built by a group of humans who had been camping here when the world ended.

Princess was the closest of the fourteen survivors to the fire. This was her second time crying in her entire life. Both were caused by the end of the world or the ends that followed it. The first time Princess had cried since the world ended was the morning after it ended when she had returned to the ruins of The Howling Rock. She'd thought she'd found the broken body of Runt, her mate whose pups she was pregnant with, next to Stinky and Claudette. Luckily, however, it had turned out that they were not dead, and those three had happened to be wolves who resembled Claudette, Runt and Stinky. They were the Eastern Pack wolf called Scarlet, despite her red-orange fur rather than normal orange fur, who resembled Claudette, and two male wolves from the Southern Wolf Packs called Dylan and Hamish, who resembled Stinky and Runt except for their darker fur. But just because Stinky had been alive didn't mean Mica, his very pregnant mate, hadn't cried for those three wolves—Scarlet had been one of her oldest friends from Alpha school, and the other two had been her little brothers. Claws had also cried with Mica, just for Scarlet, who had been her niece, the daughter of her sister, who had also died in the collapse of The Howling Rock.

Now, Princess was crying over the reality of everything going on. The deaths of Candy and Scar were just hitting her and they hit her hard. She felt as if she could've done something to save Candy if she hadn't gone upstairs, and she'd noticed that the ground, which Scar had been standing on when he died, had been weak but she hadn't said anything about it because Claws had been screaming at her mate seconds before he was choked to death by that vine.

Lilly and Humphrey were also near the fire, but nowhere near as close to the fire as Princess, pregnant, and her good friend Claws, in addition to the other pregnant wolves Claudette, Mica, and Magril. The pregnant wolves needed to stay warm for their unborn puppies' sake. All of the pregnant wolves, plus Lilly and Humphrey, slept by the fire. And because their mates were near the fire, Runt and Fleet were near the fire as well. It was unfortunate that Claws and Magril were widows—they had no mate to raise their puppies with and no one to sleep with at night for the comfort. Sometimes, they had cried themselves to sleep at night when they didn't have someone to sleep with. For that reason, Fleet slept between his older mate Claudette and his little sister Magril, just as Runt slept between his mate Princess and his mate's good friend Claws. Scava, a wolf from King's pack who claimed he's from Red Deer Park, and Marco, the crow, were further from the fire, keeping an eye on the group as they slept until someone can to relieve them in a few hours to take over the watch. With that murder who killed Candy and at least three humans following them, they couldn't afford to sleep without someone watching over them. Scava and Marco had volunteered to watch over them. Stinky and Fleet would in two hours, then Runt and Humphrey would, and then after them, Princess and Claws. The watch would end with Kate and Claudette. They would still get eight hours of sleep since they had all agreed to go to sleep two hours earlier than they usually did to make up for those two hours the wolves would've lost otherwise by watching over the group.

Kate was sleeping further away from the fire than anyone else was. She was so far away from it that she hardly felt its heat, not that she needed it anyway, and the only one who thought that. She was also the only wolf who was having a dream right now, of the twelve who was dreaming, but she was not having a peaceful sleep. She was tossing and turning, her ears, and tail were twitching, pawing the air with her front legs, and kicking at something with her hind legs. Kate kept snapping her jaws as if she were trying to bite something that wasn't even there. Kate was dreaming…rather, having a nightmare. If this entire world was one big nightmare, then the nightmare Kate was dreaming was Hell. And if this world were Hell then there wouldn't be a term to describe how terrible of a nightmare she was having. Now, Kate began whimpering and kicking, clawing, and biting as if she was trying to escape from something that had a hold on her.

In her nightmare, Kate was all alone in a dead landscape that looked like sand as far as she could see in all directions. The landscape had already been scorched by a wildfire, leaving nothing behind. Not even something as small as insects or as big as trees. She noticed that the rivers of the Western Wolf Pack's Territory were all dried up. Everyone she went, Kate found this destroyed landscape as well as the scorched, dead remains of trees. There was not one living thing in sight, nor was there one dead thing in sight. Just nothing. It was all very reminiscent of the morning after the world had ended. Kate was all alone in her nightmare, as she had been that same morning until she found Humphrey. Except that the nightmare was far from being as terrifying as the real thing. Or was it? Kate felt as if she was reliving that very morning, except the entire Western Territory had been burned up.

Kate attempted to call out the names of the survivors she was sleeping a few feet away from in reality but no words escaped her lips when she opened her mouth. In her mind, she had cried the names of Lilly and all her other surviving family members, but the words died on her tongue. They didn't escape her mouth no matter how much she tried to speak or scream their names. She couldn't even scream when she attempted to. It was so muffled of a scream that she sounded as if something was covering her mouth or as if something had been stuck in her mouth to prevent her from speaking. But if something was doing either of those, why couldn't see feel it? Kate blinked, keeping her eyes closed for less than two seconds, and when she re-opened her eyes, she was suddenly surrounded by fog. The scariest thing about this fog was not that it was there so suddenly but the color. The fog was not white but red—dark, no _blood_ red!

Kate hardly had to sniff the air to pick up a familiar scent. It was so strong. This scent was one she knew from going on many hunts before the world ended. It was the scent of blood, and not just in the blood-red fog, that was floating around her body, staining her fur red with blood, much to Kate's horror. She stuck her tongue out to pant—it was suddenly getting hotter—and she could state blood when the fog made contact with her tongue. She pulled her tongue back in her mouth immediately and screamed again, and this time, sound escaped her mouth. It was a loud, almost ear piercing screaming that echoed through this barren terrain. Now, she didn't feel as alone as she had been. She felt like she was being watched…and just maybe she was. There was a set of eyes in a single, brown, burned, bush that seemed out of place in this dead landscape.

The eyes were red. So red that Kate sensed something evil was in that bush, and about the entire area. The eyes, of whatever it was in the bush, blinked shut once, and they re-opened burning like fire. The bush went ablaze then a female wolf stopped out of the burning bush unharmed. She had the same eyes, which were still burning. The body of this female wolf didn't have a single scorch mark or injury on her body. Not a single strand of her hair and fur was out of place. The most frightening thing about this wolf was that she was an exact replace of Kate—in every way except for her red and burning eyes. And then her voice—

—her voice was just as different from the real Kate's voice was her eyes were different from the real Kate's eyes. It was raspy and sounded like the voice of an old wolf, only scarier and eviler. The real Kate's heart rank to her stomach and she felt ill.

"You…" the seemingly evil clone of Kate said slowly." I have come for you…"

"NO!" Kate screamed. "You are not real! This is a nightmare! A nightmare! You are NOT REAL! This is just a nightmare!"

"It is not fake, or a nightmare!" Kate realized how much this demonic female wolf sounded like a male now. "I have come to take your soul…you will be damned to Hell forever!" the demon screamed at Kate.

"NO!" Kate screamed again.

"YES!" The demonic female roared back in response. Then something else began to happen. Every individual fur of this female demon wolf turned to flames. Then her body exploded into a mess of burning blood and guts that showed Kate. When Kate re-opened her eyes—she'd closed them to avoid getting the blood and gore in them—and looked up, all that remained of the demonic wolf was her skeleton and her eyeballs. Her blood and her guts, right down to her reproductive organs and the unfertilized eggs that would become puppies if fertilized were all over the ground and hanging from the branches of the burned and dead trees.

Now, the female demon had teeth more like long fangs that overlapped each other. Her claws were just as different and poked holes in the ground every time she clicked them on the ground. And Kate would have learned what it felt like to be ripped apart by those fangs and claws if it was not a nightmare. The demon wolf lunged at her, and pinned Kate to the down, then tore her to shreds…piece of flesh by piece of flesh until she was reduced to a bloody skeleton…

Kate woke up screaming and crying, flailing her limbs about with her claws extended. The wolves and the crow, even Scava, had come to check on her had to retreat to avoid being wounded by Kate's claws. It was risky for any of them to try, but all it took to calm Kate was a kiss, rather a lick on her cheek. It was not Humphrey but Lilly who did it.

"What happened?" Princess asked, wide eyed.

Kate told them what happened in her hellish nightmare and they were all too scared to go back to sleep early that night, even Scava. When the survivors finally returned to sleep again, all extremely close to each other, with Scava and Marco still on watch, they would not sleep easily for the rest of the night.


	11. A Bit of a Stress Reliever

**Chapter 10**

**A Bit of a Stress Reliever**

Claudette woke up suddenly in the night, unable to sleep after what her mother, Kate, told them about her recent nightmare. She was afraid she'd have one just like it, if not worse than, her mother's nightmare.

"What's wrong, dear?" Fleet, her mate, asked. He was lying next to his sleeping little sister, Magril, who was snoring lightly.

"I can't sleep," Claudette complained, "ever since mother told us about that nightmare she had. I don't know how I'll get relaxed enough to sleep unless you…forget it."

"Unless I what?" Fleet asked, cocking his head. "I'll do anything if it helps you sleep. Just say it, I won't be offended. I'm your mate after all. What didn't we do to each other as mates? I did get you pregnant, for one."

Claudette pointed at Fleet's head with her right paw, then moved her paw to her crotch and flicked her tongue briefly, then pulled it back in her mouth. Fleet wasn't very surprised. She'd done it to him, so why wouldn't he ever return to favor to his mate? And not just returning the favor by getting her pregnant but using his mouth, well tongue in his case, to pleasure her just as Claudette had once done to him—specifically on the night before the world ended. They'd found a box canyon a good distance from where anyone could hear Fleet moaning as she'd sucked him off until he climaxed in her mouth. She'd swallowed the salty result, and then the world ended an hour later.

* * *

Fleet agreed to lick Claudette to make her feel better then they went to find a good place for Claudette to lie down on her back for a long time, in addition to an area where none of them would hear her moans of pleasure.

They found a place about fifteen yards, or forty-five feet, away from the clearing where the wolves were sleeping. While wolves who were awake would hear Claudette's moans, the sleeping wolves would not. It had been two hours ago when Scava and Marco had been on watch, so they were sleeping now, replaced by Stinky and Sweets, who had volunteered to be on watch instead of Fleet, who was exhausted.

Claudette carefully lay down on her back because she was pregnant. Fleet got down on all fours, and looked up at her, then asked, "Do you really want to do this?"

"Yes, I do," she said, and as if to show she wanted it, Claudette touched herself between her legs, and even fingered herself once. "Just eat me, Fleet," she whispered sexually.

Fleet was convinced. So when Claudette moved her paw on the way, Fleet stuck his muzzle between her legs, stuck out his tongue, and began licking gently. His tongue was rough, and as he ran it along the lips of Claudette's pussy, she moaned, and he got it wet with his saliva. Claudette moaned as she lay against a tree, trying not to flail her hind legs or accidentally hit Fleet with them. She was watching, moaning, as her mate licked her, running his tongue up and down her pussy. Claudette knew what he was thinking, so she spread her legs as far as she could, so Fleet would have enough room for his head to move around freely.

"Tell me how I taste, Fleet..." Claudette moaned suddenly, as he licked a little harder than before. He could sense that she wanted him to lick her faster so she'd feel better quicker.

Fleet continued licking even though he'd heard Claudette tell him to tell her what she tastes like. Right now, she wouldn't like his answer. He wasn't going to stop licking her pussy, but right now, it was a little bitter. Fleet didn't know it, but that wasn't because of her fluids, rather her urine. When someone was sexually stimulated, can't control their functions was difficult and they urinated a little. And it wasn't just the females—Fleet would be doing the same thing right now if he were in his mate's position. Luckily, the taste got better a minute later, so Fleet wasn't as afraid to answer.

He stopped licking her long enough to say, "It's…kinda thick and salty tasting." Then he went back to licking until Claudette begged, through moans.

"Oooh…Fleet," she moaned, "don't just lick me…stick your tongue in it…"

Fleet complied, willing to do whatever would make her feel as best as she possible could. He was no longer only licking her pussy but flicking his tongue in and out of it gently, getting it even wetter than licking alone had. The pleasure Claudette felt was so much different, so much better, than anything she'd better when Fleet was just running her tongue over her pussy. It was far from the pleasure mating gave her, but she enjoyed this much more than any mating, not that she didn't enjoying mating. Fleet's tongue was so much gentler, softer than his dick was, and it got her much wetter, all over her crotch, than mating with him had.

"Stick it in deeper, Fleet—oh!" she screamed with pleasure, and then cried his name. "So deep!" she cried when Fleet stuck his tongue further into her pussy than he'd done before. Although her climax was still minutes away, Fleet could taste Claudette's fluids, as he flicked the tip of his pink tongue in and out of her pink lips. His tongue was white with her fluids, the ones he had gotten on his tongue from just licking her pussy.

Claudette smiled down at Fleet seductively as she watched him, with interest, flicked his tongue in and out of her pussy. She was almost constantly moaning. Then she said something that could provoke him to lick her even harder…wetter. "Come on Fleet, make me wet with your saliva! Make sure everyone knows I'm yours!"

That did it for them both. Fleet began licking as if he was licking a Popsicle, not a pussy. Either way, this sure was a treat. Claudette's pussy was a treat for Fleet, and being eaten out by him was a treat for her! Just as she was savoring the feeling of Fleet's tongue running along her pussy and being flicked in and out of it, Fleet was savoring the taste of his mate's pussy and the fluids that would get on his tongue. If this tasted good, albeit salty, then he couldn't wait for her grand finale—

—when Claudette's thick, salty fluids would spray out of her body, all over his brownish-yellow face. She would turn his brownish-yellow face white when that happened, and he would enjoy it, obviously. She'd gotten his fluids all over her face after sucking him off or giving him a pawjob, but he'd never gotten her fluids all over his face after eating her out. He'd never even put his head between Claudette's legs before, let along stuck his tongue in her pussy, but she'd put her head between his legs and put his dick in her mouth a few times. She claimed it was thick and salty, his semen, and that she loved that about it—that was why she swallowed his semen, not spit it out, like a lot of females did after sucking a male off, her mate or not. They didn't like the taste as much as Claudette did.

"Yes, Fleet, please..." Claudette moaned, closing her eyes and feeling his tongue penetrate her deeper than ever. "Oh, yes, you're making me so wet!" The pleasure of being eaten out, for the first time, was so great for Claudette that it was making her cry out in pleasure. Fleet was licking her pussy so determinedly that her fluids, the ones that were normally there, not from an orgasm, were splattering his face and his saliva was splattering all over her crotch, in addition to his face.

Then, suddenly, Claudette began to wonder about how Fleet would've gotten so good at eating her out. She was curious if he'd ever done this before. She'd never sucked off anyone other than him before. But did he have girlfriends before her—

—or did he lick another female's pussy when they were dating or after they married?!

"Have you done this before?!" Claudette gasped, and then moaned because he stuck a lot of his tongue into her pussy at the same time. "You're way too good at this for your first time!" Even though he had been eating her pussy out for the past five minutes, she was on the verge of getting mad at him. She was suspicious that he'd eaten more pussies than her own. She wouldn't care if it weren't for the fact that he'd never eaten hers before now, and he could've done it multiple times to other females.

Fleet kept his head between Claudette's spread legs and explained how he'd never tasted any female's pussy before. He hadn't licked hers or any other female in the Northern, Eastern, or Western Wolf Packs before meeting her. He hadn't even been sucked off by another female before he met Claudette. He told her there wasn't one female he'd loved before her, Magril excluded because he was his sister, but he'd loved her as a sister more than any other female in the Northern Wolf Pack as a girlfriend or mate. He'd never dated or even had a one-night stand, touched a female's pussy, or had his dick touched by another female. Not until he met Claudette.

This admittance by her loyal mate, whom she'd married over a year-and-a-half ago, made Claudette happy, almost as happy as being eaten out by him. He went back to doing that, with Claudette putting her large front right paw on the back of his head, pushing his snout into her pussy as he licked it more passionately than before. When she stopped pushing his head into her crotch, moving her front leg back to her side, his muzzle was white with her fluids. Her orgasm was drawing near, maybe a minute, or two, of licking away, as going to be the most powerful one she ever had, she was sure. All of her earlier orgasms had been mostly from her touching herself at night when Fleet was sleeping, and the time they had mated, when she rode him at The Howling Rock in the privacy of a box canyon. Originally, Claudette had stuck her butt up, making Fleet thing they were going to mate doggy style, the male behind the female, mounted over her hips, but when he had gone to mount her, she'd flipped him around and mounted him. Fleet had been surprised but then he'd enjoyed being ridden so much than the time he'd mated with Claudette when she hadn't been in heat. Female wolves and dogs in general can only get pregnant when they're in heat.

"We're gonna be do—" Claudette began, only to scream "AHH, YES!" when Fleet stuck as much of his tongue as possible in her pussy and moved it around playfully inside there for a few seconds. When he went back to moaning, she managed to speak again. "—Doing this a lot more often..."

Although the process was entirely different—licking and penetrating with his tongue—Claudette now understand why Fleet enjoyed getting his dick sucked by her. This form of oral caused extreme pleasure for her, so she could almost understand how it felt for the male half of a couple to be sucked off.

Claudette began twitching her body with pleasure, moaning, crying, and screaming - Fleet's name - all in pleasure as he increased his licking speed. She knew that her climax was nearing, and would warn her mate when it was about to happen. He flicked his tongue in and out until she spoke through long, drawn out breaths.

"Mmmmm…" she moaned in a low, pleasured voice. "Watch out Fleet!" she warned suddenly. "Here it cums…er…comes!" Then she let out a piercing scream of ecstasy. "Ohhh…YES!" And then Fleet gasped as Claudette orgasmed all over his face, staining his brownish-yellow fur with her white fluids. She looked down at him and he looked up at her. They were both smiling at each other, as he licked her fluids off his lips.

Claudette was breathing heavily, still lying on her back. "Oh, yes, Fleet," she moaned. "That was great! We'd better get cleaned up and back to the others before they worry about us."

They pair of wolves didn't notice a wolf watching them from a cliff above. He was one out of the group of survivors, who was still alive, and he had been there the entire time, not that he had expected what he saw. The wolf had a black mask with three holes torn in it over his head…he slipped away before Claudette and Fleet noticed, before they went to the nearby lake to wash the white fluids off their body.


	12. A Very Toxic Area

**Chapter 11**

**A Very Toxic Area**

It was several days since the survivors had left the gas station, and the clearing near where Fleet had pleasured Claudette, each a place where they'd spent a night and an entire day resting. They were several hundred miles from Jasper Park now. Marco, the crow, estimated that they were now about half way to the shoreline of Hudson Bay. Of course, that was 661.5 miles from where they were now, and then it was another 785 miles until they reached supposed safe haven known as Baffin Island. That was another 1,446.5 miles until they would finally be safe…hopefully.

_Another 1,446.5 miles of fucking hell_, Claws thought angrily, bitterly. _And I'll be glad when we get there so I don't have to look at that asshole Scava anymore_. She looked at the dark gray wolf, who was still wearing that damn ugly mask after Princess had taken off his face off, with a look of murder in her eyes and such a thought in her head. If she weren't pregnant, Claws would kill him so brutally that they'd have to come up with a new word besides slaughter, massacre, annihilation, mass murder, mass execution, mass destruction, bloodbath, slay, assassinate, eliminate, exterminate, butcher, killing, homicide, kill, carnage, bloodshed, or butchery to describe how bad she would kill Scava if it was physically possible. Of course, Claws wasn't stupid—she knew better than to attack a wolf, whether he was larger than she was or not, when she was pregnant. If Scar weren't dead, she'd have him kill that heartless motherfucker. But her loving mate was dead, so maybe Princess would kill him soon. She knew how much Princess hated Scava. The best way she'd describe Princess's hate of Scava was this: she put almost as much passion in her hate toward Scava as she put passion into loving Runt. It was bad when someone hated another wolf as much as that wolf loved her mate.

Now, the wolves and the crow were resting for the first time in five days, sleeping excluded. They had traveled 350 miles in those 5 days—70 miles each day, with was 40 more miles than most wolves usually traveled in a day. That wasn't unheard of, but it was anything but impossible for a wolf, or a pack of wolves, to travel 70 to 100 miles in a day. Normally, wolves didn't have a reason to travel that far, but trying to find a safe haven after the world ended when they were being followed by a wolf who had a taste for wolf and human blood was a good reason to travel more than double the distance they traveled each day. They were sure they'd lost that bloodthirsty wolf now.

The fourteen survivors—thirteen wolves and one crow, still—weren't too far from a canyon with a massive opening in the bottom of it. The opening appeared empty at a brief first glance, but they soon realized it was flooded with lava deep into, maybe 300 meters (984 feet, 3 1/32 inches) down the opening in the ground. That was comforting, at least, for the wolves wouldn't need to worry about escaping if that was an underground volcano rather than nothing more than an opening in the ground. Or, if it began rising out of that opening, they'd have a chance to escape before it burned them all up. There was also a gas rising out of the opening, probably the "carbon dioxide," or whatever it was, called Marco had been talking about several days ago.

They were also enjoying their first meal of caribou, one that died an hour ago, in over a week. Claws was ravenously eating from the carcass since she was pregnant. She was lacking essential nutrition because she hadn't been eaten like a pregnant wolf should eat since the world ended about a week ago. Claws could tear two, if not three, times more caribou meat than a non-pregnant female could even begin to think about eating. Everyone had eaten their fill within fifteen minutes of finding this head caribou except for Claws, who took twenty-five minutes to eat her fill. She even made sure she got to eat the liver, the stomach, and the intestines of the caribou. Those were the most nutritious, and the most delicious, in her mind, part of a caribou.

Claws and Sweets were now sleeping near the canyon because of the heat it gave off. Not one of the survivors were concerned that something bad would happen like what happened to Garth and Scar—they died because the ground collapsed. They'd all checked this area out before settling here to eat. It was safe for the fourteen wolves. Marco had nothing the worry about—he could just fly away from any danger there could be.

Lilly had wanted to be alone after eating her fill of caribou meat. Not even Kate was by her side this time. Lilly was thinking about all the good memories she had with the missing—Garth and Eve—as well as Claudette, who she'd feared dead a week earlier. She didn't really know Hutch, missing, and Scar, dead, that much to have any memories about them.

Although Claudette was not dead, everyone had feared her dead until Fleet had brought her and Magril out of a den at The Howling Rock that hadn't been destroyed by the earthquake. The first wolf Lilly was thinking about was Claudette, her niece, and the oldest pup, and the only daughter, of Kate and Humphrey. Just like Runt and Stinky's mates, Princess and Mica, Lilly and Claws too, Claudette as pregnant with her mate's puppies. The different was that Princess and Lilly weren't heavily pregnant like Lilly, Mica, and Claws were. Lilly's best memory of her niece was from this year's Halloween when an angry grizzly bear had come rampaging through the Western Wolf Pack's Territory. Claudette had been chasing the bear away from their territory with several other wolves when one of the now dead park rangers had arrived with a tranquilizer rifle power enough to put a bear down in a minute with just one dart. The other wolves had gotten out of the way in time to avoid being shot by the tranquilizer rifle—

—except for Claudette. She'd been right in the line of fire, still chasing the bear, when the park ranger's first shot hit her in the butt, right above her tail on the right side. She'd skidded off the path as the ranger took another shot, this time hitting the bear in the butt with a dart rather than another wolf, right into the wolves she'd been chasing the bear with. Somehow, she'd managed to not crash into them, and stop by dragging her hind paws and butt on the ground. (That had made her feel like her paws and her butt were on fire.)

With a disoriented look in her eyes, cross-eyed, and her tongue hanging out of her off center jaw, dripping saliva, she'd uttered only two wolves before passing out: "Ow…tranq…uilizer…"

They'd all laughed when Claudette fell flat on her back, and Lilly was laughing quietly to herself. She also recalled how Claudette had been taken to the park rangers' station by the one who had shot the bear with a dart, after the bear was relocated to another park before it woke up, to recover from the affects of the tranquilizer drug in the dart.

The second wolf on her mind was her mate Garth whom she missed so much ever since the day he'd been washed away by the river formed at The Howling Rock by the earthquake. Other than when they'd mated in the field south of The Howling Rock, on the night the world ended, Lilly's two best memories she had of Garth were, when it was still forbidden according to pack law that Alphas, Betas, and Omegas couldn't howl with wolves outside their own rank. But she and Garth had howled with each other when it was against pack law, only to be caught by Tony and other Eastern Pack Wolves who had come to take over the Western Wolf Pack's Territory. The second good memory was when Garth had decided to teach Lilly how to hunt. She'd tried to lunge after a pinecone hanging from a low branch, only to miss and launch her own body into a dead tree rather than at the pinecone. She'd hid herself under the bark stuck on her back when Garth found her. And when Lilly had claimed she had no hunting skill, Garth had said moving the lock of hair off her right eye would help. Then he'd said her purple eyes were beautiful, the most beautiful he'd ever seen on a female wolf before.

Then there was her mother, Eve. Like Garth, there had been no signs of her body or that she was dead. It wasn't even possible to consider her mother was dead because of what Marco, the crow, had said he saw at the shoreline of Hudson Bay. It sounded like he had seen Eve and Hutch, possibly two other wolves, too, there, but, unfortunately: he hadn't thought to get their names first. They hadn't found Eve's body like they had Winston and Tony's bodies. Her best memory with Eve was of when she'd been nothing more than a wolf pup. She had only just started talking. Eve, like all other wolves, had decided to teach Kate and Lilly how to swim at a young age. Kate had done perfectly while Lilly had done decently—

—she'd ended up wearing a lily pad around her neck like a necklace when she'd dived into the river, trying to show off to her Alpha sister and Alpha mother.

Lilly even had good memories of Humphrey before Kate had fallen in love with him and she'd fallen in love with Garth. Lilly had almost fallen in love with Humphrey until she'd been given permission her to lead Garth on a "tour of the valley" until Kate returned. She'd almost fallen in love with Humphrey when Kate had been talking to Garth. She'd told Lilly and Humphrey to run off and have fun until she came looking for her little sister.

And they did under a tree near The Howling Rock. No, Lilly didn't mate with Humphrey, fearing what Eve would've done to him if he had gotten her pregnant. The only time a female wolf could get pregnant was when she was in heat, but Lilly hadn't known the different back there. She'd been rather ignorant about her own body when she was an adolescent. So, instead of mating with Humphrey, she'd given him a blow…_Heh-heh, that's a little too much information,_ she thought. Lilly also remembered how nothing she'd said or did made Humphrey feel any better about being dumped, basically, by Kate for Garth. At least, in the end, all four of them were able to marry the wolf they truly loved, and not someone they would've been forced to marry.

Lilly heard screaming all of a sudden that made her snap out of her thoughts.

"Claws, Sweets! Get away from the ledge! Now!" It was Princess. But the other twelve wolves were too late—

—the ground where they were sleeping gave in and the two females, one very pregnant, slid down the sandy side of the canyon. Neither of them had been injured by the fall, but they were still both in danger. Carbon dioxide was leaking from the opening in the ground at dangerous levels. If the two female wolves were in this canyon for too long, the toxic gas would suffocate and eventually kill them.

Sweets, a weak wolf to begin with, was already weakened by the potent gas, but she was trying to push Claws up the sandy hill to the footholds in the wall. She didn't care about herself getting out as much as getting a very pregnant Claws, who was obviously heavy, out of here so she would live to have her puppies. Sweets had nothing left to live for—Salty was dead and they'd never mated. Sweets was beginning to gasp for breaths now. She lost her strength just as she'd been about to push Claws up onto the ledge, where she'd be able to climb up freely. Sweets collapsed underneath Claws and tumbled back down the hill into the thickest part of the gasp.

"Help!" Claws screamed, clawing at the ledge that she was hardly hanging into. She was digging her claws into the rock, crying for the others to help her, as she heard Sweets gasping for breath and choking to death because of the thick, rising cloud of carbon dioxide. "Oh, help me, please! I don't wanna die! Not like this, and not before I give birth! HELP ME!" She screamed again.

Princess and Scava, who were the two strongest wolves, ran toward the ledge where they saw Claws hanging on for dear life. The two former rogues jumped down there, where one of them grabbed each of Claws's paws, and attempted to pull her up.

"She's slipping!" Scava yelped. "I'm losing my grip!"

"Grip _harder_!" Princess ordered through clenched teeth, noticing just happened to Sweets. The tan—as in a suntan—colored Omega's head had landed over the opening in the ground. It wasn't just the gas killing Sweets. A good amount of hot steam that had just shot out of the opening accomplished that. It was so hot, Princess and Scava realized, when the steam cleared, that it had burned Sweets's head right down to the bone. There was no fur, flesh, blood, not even her brain, left on her head. Her eyes were gone, too—everything that had made up her head turned to ashes.

Claws saw it, too, and that made her scream for them to pull her up before she fell. Luckily, for her Scava had managed to get his grip back after seeing what that steam did to Sweets's skull. He wasn't going to let that happen to another wolf—he wouldn't even let Princess die like that if it was her hanging off this ledge, even if he hated her guts. No one deserved to die like that, getting her head burned down to the skull, entirely, by scalding hot steam.

"Pull me up, damn it!" Claws screamed and went into a cursing rage. "Put those fuckin' wolf muscles of yours to damn good work and pull my pregnant ass outta here!" she screamed in pure terror, the image of Sweets's burned skull serving as a good reminder of what could happen to her if they lost their grip. "I'm not going to get my fuckin' skull turned to ashes by fuckin' hot steam NOW FUCKIN' PULL ME UP!" Claws roared. "Scava, you bastard, stop being a damn pansy, pussyfoot, and put your muscle into it, or I'll pull you down into that hellhole with me!"

Scava tightened his grip on Claws's left paw, and attempted to pull harder, but neither he nor Princess helped any more to pull Claws up. "Dig your damn claws into my feet if you have to. Just get me out of here!" Claws barked at them. She screamed, but clenched her teeth and took the pain like the strong Beta wolf she was, when both Princess and Scava dug their claws into flesh. She didn't care if they made her bleed because it was working—

—Princess and Scava had good enough grip on the heavy, pregnant wolf to pull her up and they did it! They did it without even hurting her sensitive, bloated belly that several puppies were growing inside.

Claws, franticly, as if she thought she'd miss the chance, was thanking both of her saviors. She didn't care what wrong Scava had done in the past—in her mind, he'd made all that up in this moment by saving her life, and the lives of her unborn puppies.

"We're not out of this hellhole yet, Claws," Scava said, helping Princess lift her up onto his back. The horrified female was screaming as she wrapped her front legs around Scava's back, worried that she was pushing too hard on her bloated belly and the unborn pups inside her womb, as her two saviors began climbing up the hillside they'd jumped down, using the footholds that were there.

Without losing her grip, or hurting her unborn puppies at all, Scava was the first to reach the safety of the group, where eight of the other ten surviving wolves helped pull him and Claws up. As Princess was helped out by Runt and Stinky, the others helped a very pregnant Claws get off Scava's back. Now, she was laying on her side, crying in shock over what happened to Sweets. Not only was she crying in shock, she was in shock because of witnessing the hot steam melt Sweets' entire head down to the bone. Claws had seen in happen because she'd looked back to see it taking place after hearing Sweets's screaming in agony rather than choking on the carbon dioxide.

"Could there've been a-anything we c-could've done for Sweets?" Claws asked, trying not to puke.

"I'm sorry you had to go through that," Princess said as Scava helped Claws up, after he'd asked if she could use her legs, which she said yes to. "But there's nothing we could've done to help Sweets. If the steam hadn't killed her…the gas would've choked her to death before we could've helped her, and some of us could've died with Sweet if we'd tried to help her…but we must leave this place before anything else goes wrong."

"S-Sweets," Claws cried, "she gave her life for me…I would still be done in that hole, choking on the gas if I she hadn't gotten me to where I'd b-been h-holding onto that ledge." The group noticed the lava rising out of the ground just as it took Sweets's tan body away as it rose higher and higher. "Now we won't even be able to have a funeral for Sweets!" Claws cried, as the wolves ran for their lives, the lava rising higher and higher in the canyon…if they had stuck around any longer, they would've been burned up by the lava along with Sweets's lifeless body.

Claws was crying Sweets's name and thanking her for sacrificing herself to save her and her unborn puppies' lives by shouting at the sky. Claws and the others knew that Sweets was on her way to wolf heaven now, but they all regretted not being able to save her or recover her body before the lava took it away.


	13. The Story of Princess

**Chapter 12**

**The Story of Princess**

The wolves. Just two of the thirteen who were left from Jasper Park were alone in the tall grass near the group's new sleeping area, which was seventy miles from where Sweets lost her life. The other eleven weren't aware that they were here, still thinking they were sleeping. It was Lilly and Princess. Lilly was the only of her fellow survivors Princess had wanted to speak with because she was the best storyteller out of all the survivors. It was also because of a terrible feeling Princess had had for some time. She felt not only that she would lose her life soon, but that Lilly would possibly be the only adult wolf out of this group would survive to live a peaceful life on Baffin Island. Obviously, Princess hoped this feeling was not so, but given how many of them had died already, she was not sure what to think.

Princess was now telling Lilly her second reason for waking her up, other than her fear that she would die soon. She didn't want her real reason to be known only because it could ruin the others chances at survival. She had a bad feeling about Scava, that she'd seen him once before, but she couldn't remember where or when, no matter how much she tried to remember. "I fear that my life will end soon…"

"What?!" Lilly gasped.

"Just listen," Princess said. "If I don't make it, I want you to know this part of my life story that I've never told anyone until now. If I am going to die, I don't want to be forgotten like so many others we know will be forgotten. They died without telling their stories to anyone who didn't survive, either. I know I sound like a selfish bitch, but wouldn't you do the same for any of us?"

"But why me?" Lilly asked, confused.

Princess lowered her head and sighed. "I didn't want to tell you this part, but I fear that you'll be the only adult out our group who survives to see Banff Island for long." She paused, allowing Lilly to gasp. "Now, let me tell you the part of my life story no one has ever heard before…"

* * *

Princess was born to her father, King, when he was known by the name Slash, and to her mother Queen, whose real name was unknown, it had been so long since she'd used it. Her parents named her Terra, a name she'd give to her oldest daughter if she does survive to given birth in about two months. Her father had once been the biggest supporter of Tony and he had had the same role in the Eastern Wolf Pack that Hutch had had in the Western Wolf Pack before the world had ended. He'd been the right paw wolf of Winston and later his daughter Kate when she became the pack leader.

The night Terra was born in the middle of the summer was a year after Kate had been born, and she was possibly the oldest wolf of her generation. For some reason, females had gotten pregnant a few months later that year. Female wolves usually gave birth in the spring, not during the summer. From the first day Terra had been able to speak perfectly in complete sentences, Slash wanted his daughter to be the best Alpha in the valley. But two wolves who were competition for her: Kate and Garth, two Alphas from the general before. Kate was the daughter of the pack leaders, Winston and Eve, of the Western Wolf Pack, and Garth was the son of the Alpha male of the Eastern Wolf Pack and his recently deceased mate. Garth's mother died the day after she gave birth to one pup who hadn't been stillborn—that was Garth—to unknown causes. Some said she'd died of disease but no one really knew for sure.

Slash wasn't a fool. He knew it would be difficult to train his daughter to be better than the daughter of the Western Pack leaders and the son of the Eastern Pack leaders. He knew Winston, Eve, and Tony well. They would train their pups to be the best they could be, and then some, by having wolves spy on the other pack leaders to try to get ahead of the other pack leader. Slash would do the same with wolves who supported him more than they supported Tony. If it wasn't for this being the time of year when The Great Wolf Games took place, he would've tried to overthrow Tony, and kill him and Garth both if it came to that, then he would try to do the same to Winston. Winston, Eve, and Kate would die if he had to kill them to become the leader of the Western Wolf Pack, too. But now, he was just focused on getting his daughter ready to work for the title of "Best Alpha Wolf in Jasper Park." The Great Wolf Games was a challenge that not only took place twice a year to have some friendly competition among the wolves, but a simpler version of The Great Wolf Games took place after Alpha school came to an end. It was used to determine who the best Alpha wolf was, but Betas and Omegas could compete just for the fun and attempt to outdo the Alphas.

* * *

This simpler version of The Great Wolf Games arrived a month later, after King's planning of conquering the Eastern Wolf Pack then the Western Wolf Pack had begun. The competing Alphas—Terra, Kate, and Garth—were lined in the front row of competitors. Behind them were the competing Betas—Claws, Scar, Hutch, and Candu, and in the back row were the competing Omegas—Humphrey, Candy, Sweets, Reba and Janice. This was the final of three rounds of The Great Wolf Games, and these were the final twelve competitors of the game.

Kate was one of the two daughters of the Western Wolf Pack leaders Winston and Eve. The second, the youngest, was an Omega wolf called Lilly, who was sitting next to her parents watching the event. She wasn't old enough to compete, but she wouldn't have competed anyway. Lilly was a shy wolf, too shy to compete in such an event with other wolves, most of whom she didn't even know. Kate and Humphrey were the only wolves at the starting line she knew. Garth was the son of Tony, Terra was the daughter of Slash and Queen, and the rest of the wolves were all orphaned adolescents who had been orphaned, and were originally from the national parks Banff and Red Deer.

This was actually the second to last event in the competition, the judges had just announced, much to the shock of the competitors and the audience. The final two wolves would go onto the next and final round to determine the winner of the games, and possibly the best Alpha of this generation of wolves. If it were two Alphas, then the winner of the final round would be called the best Alpha. However, if only Alpha was left standing, then the games would end here, and that Alpha would get the title. The same would happen if no Alphas were left standing in the end, all the Alphas defeated by a Beta or an Omega, which was unlikely—no, it was impossible. It'd never happened before, and it probably never would happen. Never in the history of this simpler version of The Great Wolf Games had no Alphas made it to the bonus round, which was always kept secret from everyone until the first day of the games. If any Alphas did lose to a Beta or an Omega, obviously, the parents of said Alphas would be embarrassed, and so would the Alphas themselves.

The parents of all the remaining adolescents, of those who had parents, were setting on either side of a fallen tree. They included Winston and Eve, Tony, and well, that was it. Humphrey, Candy, Sweets, Reba, Janice, Claws, Scar, Hutch, and Candu had no one to support them, being orphaned pups. But a lack of support did nothing to depress them or to kill their spirit any. Even if they weren't Alphas, their social ranking didn't have any effect on their determination to be the first Beta or Omega to win this. Although teams weren't required in this competition—it was actually recommended by the judges that it be a "best wolf for him- or herself" sort of competition—that didn't mean teams were forbidden. Nothing would stop Candy from helping Sweets, Reba from helping Janice, Hutch from helping Candu, or Claws from helping Scar. These unofficial teams were best friends for as long as these wolves had known each other—probably their entire lives. The same could be said about Kate and Humphrey, since they had been best friends for years, but none of his Omega friends—Salty, Shakey, and Mooch—had ever been a part of this competition. They'd said they knew they'd lose from the start, so they hadn't joined in then, nor would they ever take part in this.

Everyone was talking about how Humphrey would most likely be the first of the competitors to be eliminated. They claimed he was at the disadvantage, even if he had teamed up with Kate, who they were saying would win this all, and earn the title of Best Alpha of her generation. The adults agreed that all of the Omegas would be eliminated before any of the Betas, even if Humphrey were teamed up with Kate. The one thing that everyone in the audience could agree on is that this competition would be between Terra, Kate, and Garth, the only Alphas involved, in the end. There were no arguments about who the final two would be—everyone except for Slash and Queen agreed that it would be between Kate and Garth in the end, and Kate would win. Of course, Tony didn't agree with the last part. He thought Garth would win, while Slash and Queen thought Terra would win.

The competition was a race between just twelve wolves, who were all just lining up at the starting line of the cross-valley trail. All along the trail, the three wolf judges were posted every one-third of the track, while birds were flying ever few feet, so nothing would be missed if someone cheated. The birds would be sure any cheating was reported to the three wolf judges. Nothing wouldn't be seen by the judges or reported to the judges by the birds. Cheating was the most common thing the three judges and the numerous birds would keep an eye out for, above anything else. Anything caught by them cheating would be disqualified immediately, no questions asked. But wolves who get, say, knocked off the track by a cheating wolf wouldn't be allowed back in the competition even if it was blatant cheating on the part of the wolf or wolves who knocked him, her, or them off the tracks.

"Go!" the first judge, a female, shouted.

The twelve adolescent wolves took off immediately. Two things happened just as immediate as the twelve wolves taking off from the starting line that didn't surprise any of the judges or anyone in the audience. The first wolf to be eliminated from the competition was Humphrey, who went crashing into a log and flying into a mossy ditch, despite Kate's efforts to keep him under control. One of the judges shouted that Humphrey had been eliminated, as she slouched sadly over to the audience, mumbling angrily to himself. Kate snarled then just took off, not thinking any more about her old friend. She needed to win this race, she thought.

The second thing was the places the wolves were in, as reported by the birds:

1. Terra

2. Kate

3. Garth

4. Claws

5. Sweets

6. Candy

7. Scar

8. Candu

9. Hutch

10. Reba

11. Janice

As soon as the larger of the two ravens watching from the sky announced this, he squawked about Kate passing Terra suddenly. Then the unofficial team of the vegetarian wolves, and best friends, Reba and Janice going off the track simultaneously because they'd made an error of movement when they came to a slick part of the trail. Candy and Sweets passed all of the wolves, except for the Alphas, ten minutes later.

Sweets looked back, lifting up her tail, and shouted, "Do you boys like what you see?" She was taunting everyone she had just passed. Even though she was shaking her tail flauntingly as she ran, Sweets was referring to her passing them. Not what they saw underneath her tail, as she waved it back and forth. That was just a coincidence that she'd said it right after raising her tail. "You can kiss my tail and my feet when I when!" was what Sweets said that got her disqualified from the competition simply for taunting in an unsportsmanlike fashion. This distracted Candy, Sweets's best friend, to the point of going up a ramp and several feet into the air. She would've landed on the track again, and not been eliminated, if it wasn't for crashing into a tree. Candy ran away from the track screaming, being chased by a swarm of angry yellow jackets whose nest she'd disturbed by crashing into the tree, and knocking it loose from one of the branches.

Now, Kate was in first place again. She was being followed by Garth, Terra, Claws, and Hutch and lastly Scar, in that order. Candu had been eliminated shortly Humphrey was, for similar reasons. Caws slipped into last place suddenly before going off the course, she was so shocked by the sight of Scar crashing into the sand off the side of the trail when he'd misjudged a turn. But she'd not intended to go out alone, and had taken Hutch with her into a small pond, where she screamed at him angrily as they crawled out of the water. Claws kicked him back in the water, walked away, but Candu helped him out of the water.

The only wolves who were left in the race now were the three Alphas.

The raven shouted: "Kate is in first place, Garth is in second place, and Terra is in third place!"

"WHAT?!" Terra screamed then darted, out of angry. She lunged over a tree stump and then unintentionally landed on Kate's back, causing the year older wolf to yelp in surprise and fear, and then arched her back in a way that sent Terra through the air and reeling when she landed on the ground. For that reason, the female judge yelled that Terra was disqualified for intentionally making contact with another competitor. Terra shouted about not meaning two as she left the track. Only her father was shocked, or cared that she'd been disqualified. He cared to the point of ranting and screaming at the judges.

Eventually, Terra and her parents were forced to leave for disrupting the race.

Garth watched as Kate, the only other wolf left in the race, passed so far ahead of him that there was no chance of him winning, so he let himself skid off the track. He accepted being eliminated but he was cuffed across the head by his father, Tony, knowing why Garth did what he did. He'd wanted Kate to be the only one left and automatically win, even if she was eliminated by going off the track, too. The results of the final round, since only one competitor was left in the end, were obvious. Kate was named the best Alpha of her generation because she was the only Alpha, and the only wolf, who made it past the finish line.

* * *

The end of Slash's loyalty to Tony, to the Eastern Wolf Pack and all of the Jasper wolves, came when the Eastern and Western Wolf Packs united. It was not exactly because of the unity of the two packs but because of a change in pack law. There was no longer a pack law stopping wolves from marrying higher or ranking wolves. The Alpha male of the united packs was now an Omega called Humphrey, who'd married Kate, the new pack leader after Winston and Tony retired. Slash would've rather seen Kate died because of that stampede than any Alpha marry those worthless and useless wolves called Omegas. Slash would change his name to King, his daughter's name to Princess, and his mate's name to Queen before they left Jasper Park together for Banff Park, located to the south of Jasper, which was a distance of 181 miles.


	14. A Vengeful Wolf

**Chapter 13**

**A Vengeful Wolf**

With Runt and Claws to her right, and Stinky and Mica to her left, Princess was finally sleeping peacefully, despite the events that took place two days ago about 140 miles away from where they were sleeping on this night, in a cave because it was raining. Claws and Mica were pressed up against her body, and Runt and Stinky were pressed up against their bodies. No one, not even Scava, was sleeping alone.

140 miles away from this cave was where Sweets gave her life so Claws could live another day. They'd been sleeping at the ledge of a canyon filled with a toxic gas known as carbon dioxide when the ground collapsed, and they'd fallen into the deadly canyon. Because of Sweets, Claws had made it to a cliff above the canyon before the Omega lost all strength in her legs and fell back into the canyon, right over an opening in the ground. Scava and Princess rescued Claws, but Sweets hadn't been so lucky. Hot steam erupted out of the opening and melted her head down to nothing more than the skull before lava rose out of the opening and took Sweets body with it.

Claws had been in shock after Sweets died so brutally, and she was still trying to get over her shock, as she slept by Princess, who could be considered Claws best friend, but not the only friend she had left. The events of two days and 140 miles away were why Claws was sleeping right next to Princess, fearing that if she left the wolf who'd saved her life, she would lose her life just like Sweets did.

Claudette, Fleet, and Magril were sleeping in one group, with Fleet resting his head over Claudette's head, and Magril resting her head over his back. Not far away from them were Kate, Lilly, and Humphrey, sleeping in a similar arrangement to how Claudette, Fleet, and Magril were.

Scava, although Claws had offered him a spot to next to her helping save her life, was sleeping alone, except for the crow perched on stalagmite, the pointed rocks rising from the floors of caves, not far away from him. He'd said that he didn't want to disturb Claws, Princess, Runt, Stinky, and Mica, as they slept, with his snoring. Scava was a louder snorer, according to wolves he'd slept near, his own made included, before the world ended, so he didn't sleep near other wolves.

Just like the last time he'd randomly woke up in the middle of the night, the night Candy was murdered, Scava's ears twitched, he whimpered quietly, and his tail stuck up. Scava lifted his masked head up and sighed. He still felt guilty about what happened to Candy, he thought now, but he was relieved that he'd helped save Claws life, yet he felt bad about not being able to do the same for Sweets. He'd never seen someone die in such a way Sweets died. Scava hadn't even known steam could get hot enough to melt flesh to the bone like it had to Sweets.

It wasn't raining now, so Scava figured he should get some fresh air or something while the others were sleeping. Even when he'd lived in Banff—not that any of this group, Marco included, knew he was a rogue—fresh air had helped him get some peaceful sleep. But, he now remembered Princess from his life in Banff. She was born the generation before him, in Jasper, and he'd been born in Banff. The bitch was why he had lost one of his brothers because he'd happened to compete against Princess when she'd been a loyal supporter to her father King—whom she hoped died when the world ended—in the Blood Sports. Princess's attack on his brother had been brutal, not even giving him a chance to hurt her before she tore him open from his throat to his belly, an action that had resulted in all of his guts spilling out of his body.

It was not because he knew her and because they were both rogues that he wanted to kill that bitch, Princess, but for no other reason than the fact that she slaughtered his little brother, and left him without any brothers. Because of Princess, he'd grown up with a bunch of sisters who hadn't been any less of bitches to him than he thought Princess was. They'd verbally, and physically, abused him because he was the youngest, and even raped him once by taking turns riding him when their parents hadn't been around. Any rogue passing bad had assumed it was just rough sex, and hadn't checked on him. No one knew it happened because he'd been forced to keep his mouth shut or his sisters would've murdered him. He was glad to see three of those bitches murdered by Princess when they were deemed old enough to compete. He'd never been happier to see his siblings die than when three of his sisters, who had been the most brutal in raping him, were mutilated by Princess. Luckily, it hadn't been mating season, but that didn't change the fact that Princess and the now deceased Melissa were two of the few female rogue wolves from Banff who weren't fucked up in the head.

The fact that she killed three of his seven abusive sisters didn't change the fact that Princess had also killed his little brother, who had been his only sibling who actually liked him, and that he'd liked in return. It was said that no one should hold a grudge, but Scava thought that unwritten rule was nothing more than a load of caribou shit. She fucking slaughtered, murdered, his little brother, the only member of his entire family who'd cared about him and he'd cared about.

_That bitch has a big family who loves her_, Scava thought resentfully,_ and I'm gonna take her way from them like she took my brother away from me. I don't care if it was tradition of the rogues—she had the choice of sparing him or not! She's a smarter and better wolf than that! I don't give a damn if she was young and stupid then—she was smarter than any of the adults in that pack. I'm glad they're probably all dead—it would've been better if that bitch Princess died like everyone else in Banff. Why the hell does she get to live when so many others died? She's the last wolf I'd want to be left alone in the world with, if it comes to that before we reach Baffin Island. I'll be damned if she makes it to Baffin Island, and I don't give a shit if she's pregnant with that runt's puppies. She's nothing more than Runt's whore in my eyes. She's stupid for marrying an Omega who is the runt of his little, no less._

Scava stopped thinking about Princess long enough to leave the cave and find a field that was out of hearing and scent range of the wolves since they were sleeping. He hoped that bitch would follow him here so he could kill her like she killed his brother so many years ago.

_Payback is a bitch, and so is Princess_, he thought when he laid down in the field. He didn't know if she'd follow him but he could hope she did follow him out of her suspicion or concern, he didn't care which. But she would be dead before sunrise and no one would suspect him. Not one of the wolves was familiar with his scent because he'd told them he thought it would be awkward of wolves he hardly knew sniffed him to learn his scent. They'd think it's that wolf who murdered Candy, the park rangers, and Max every time they stopped somewhere to rest for the night.

"Her name is Princess now," Scava whispered to himself, "but I'll call her DEAD before the sun rises in the sky. I swear I will."


	15. A Rogue Seeks His Vengeance

**Chapter 14**

**A Rouge Seeks His Vengeance**

Even though she was unaware that Scava had left the cave, she sensed that someone was missing, no longer in the cave the group of survivors was sleeping in. It was affecting her sleep so badly that she woke up, looking around nervously. And her feeling was right. Scava wasn't lying where he had been when they fell asleep several hours ago.

"Great," Princess muttered in a whisper. "Where'd he go now?" She blinked, wiped her eyes clear, then stood up and trotted to the mouth of the den. She lowered her head to the ground and sniffed around the mouth of the den, then picked up his trail even though she wasn't familiar with Scava's scent. All she knew was that the scent of something leaving the den was a wolf and a male one, so she had every reason to assume Scava had left the den. But why? she wondered. Why would anyone from the group randomly leave the den when it was dangerous and had been raining on and off all night? It had also been lightning and thundering all night on and off.

_I'd might as well try to find him_, Princess thought. _He's gonna have hell to pay when I find him and get him back here. Kate's gonna be pissed, for sure._

Silently, Princess walked out of the den, made sure it wasn't raining, and then she ran off after sniffing the ground again. She was following a trail of paw prints that could be Scava's, while occasionally stopping to smell the ground. It seemed that Scava had gone to the field about 300 yards (900 feet) away from the den. She could see something black, maybe dark gray, lying down in the field from atop of the hill where the den was located.

_Is that Scava?_ Princess wondered silently. _What on Earth's he doing over there? Why would he go that far to get a comfortable place to sleep?_

From Princess's point-of-view atop this hill, it looked like Scava was sleeping, and that he was lying on his side. She didn't know for sure, but was speculating that something bad may have happened to him. Maybe he was dead. Quite often, wolves went off to somewhere far away from their pack to die alone, only for their body to be discovered by his or her fellow pack members. Princess didn't care for him all that much, but after what happened to Sweets, and after what he did to help save Claws's life, she didn't want him to do. Yet, she hadn't yet forgiven him about what happened to Candy and what he'd said about her.

Seeing Scava apparently lying motionless in that field 300 yards away brought back memories of the day Princess walked into a den and found a wolf dead. It had been the biological mother of the Western Wolf Pack Omega called Sweets. Shortly after Princess had joined the Central Wolf Pack—the name for the united Eastern and Western Wolf Packs—as a Beta wolf, Candy and Sweets had come to Princess distressed about something. They'd been talking rapidly, and Princess had had to tell them to relax, breath, and then tell her what happened.

"Princess," Sweets had said. "My mother fell ill a few months before you arrived in Jasper, but she normally managed to get out of her den where my father usually took care of her, but he's been ill himself, and is recovering from a mild stroke in Eve's new den."

Candy had taken over. "Can you come with us to her mother's den and see if she's okay. I know how strong of wolf you are—Sweets doesn't want to walk in on her mother and find out something terrible happened to her."

"Of course I will," Princess had said, then was led to Sweets's mothers den by Candy and Sweets. Upon arrived, she'd told the two best friends to wait for her to come out of the cave again. Princess hadn't stayed in Sweets's mothers den for long before she'd exited it again, with an almost frightened look on her face.

"What-" Sweets had stammered. "What happened to my mother, Princess?" She'd been in tears, and Candy had wrapped her arms around Sweets, hugging her oldest friend.

Princess had closed her eyes, shaking her head slowly. "I'm sorry," she'd said. "Your mother has passed away." She still remembered Sweets's reaction as she ran across the field toward Scava. Sweets had screamed immediately, and then buried her tan face in Candy's pure white breast. Princess had never seen a wolf cry tears as big, and for as long, as Sweets had in that moment. She was also thinking about how she wished she'd had a mother whom she would cry in such a way if she died. But Princess didn't love Queen as a mother, nor did she love King as a father. Because of everything they'd done to her, and as Runt, when he'd been a puppy, she hated their guts, and hoped they'd died terrible deaths when the world ended. She also hoped they were both burning in Hell because that was what they both deserved. Her parents had both been good wolves when they were members of the Eastern Wolf Pack, when she had been was a puppy and adolescent, before it had united with the Western Wolf Pack.

Princess, as she ran, still didn't understand why her parents and all of the wolves who'd followed them to Banff hated the idea of free marriage. That is, Betas were allowed to marry Alphas and Omegas, Omegas were allowed to marry Alphas and Betas, and Alphas were allowed to marry Betas and Omegas. The pack law that said Alphas had to marry Alphas, Betas had to marry Betas, and Omegas had to marry Omegas had been abolished by Kate and Humphrey, the first couple made up of two wolves from different ranks, after they united the packs with their marriage—something that Lilly and Garth did with their marriage, too. Many of the wolves had come to see how stupid of a paw lack that had been, especially Kate's family because a war and Kate's death had almost been caused because of it. All because Kate and Garth had fallen in love with two Omegas: Kate had fallen in love with Humphrey, and Garth had fallen in love with Lilly. Other wolves who had come to hate it, and not because they were Beta and Omega wolves, included Claws and Scar, Garth, Candy and Sweets, Reba and Janice, Salty, Shakey, and Mooch.

Princess had been present when Kate almost died, as had her parents King and Queen, and she remembered how Claws had screamed at Tony when everyone else had been mourning Kate's supposed death. She seemingly had been trampled to death by a large caribou, after a stampede had began because of the fighting between the Eastern and Western Wolf Packs spooking a flock of crows, which, in turn, had spooked the caribou herd. The fight wolves themselves—all the growling, snarling, and barking—had also played a part in the stampede. The caribou had already been nervous because of some many wolves in the area.

"Bastard!" Claws had called Tony, Princess recalled now, as she was about a hundred yards from the place she'd possible seen Scava lying on the ground. "Kate is dead because of you and your ignorant beliefs. All you ever cared about is your stuck up Alpha son Garth marry some hot Alpha just because he could be married to someone more important than even you! You've fucked up a lot in the past but you've really done in this time. Someone is dead because of you! How are you going to live with yourself if Kate is really dead?! Look at poor Humphrey and Kate's family! Would you care more than you do if that was Garth who had been ran over by the caribou rather than Kate?!" Claws had seemed to know what her Alpha male had been thinking then. "You selfish bastard!" And then she had dug her claws, which she had been named after for how sharp they were, getting blood all over her paw. "I hope you burn in Hell forever," Claws had told Tony before she'd turned tail toward him, kicked dirt in his face, and then left him to mourn with all the other wolves.

Scar had just stared at him with disbelief, supportive of Claws and all the other wolves who had been mourning Kate's supposed death, at first. Then he'd shaken his head in disappoint, and muttered, "Claws is right. You've really messed up this time, _Tony_," he'd said his former Alpha male's name in an insulting way. "I'll never be able to look at you the same way again—you've broken an entire family's hearts because you declared war on their pack. And look what happened as a result. Kate could be dead because of you." And then he'd walked away, not looking at Tony again. Even though Kate had ended up being alive in the end, not many wolves forgave Tony for what he did.

Princess finally reached the place where she'd seen Scava at from atop of the hill. He was not lying down that now she'd reached him.

"What are you doing here?" Princess asked him, confused.

"Waiting for you," Scava said evenly.

"What on Earth for?" She cocked her head.

"You know what!" he barked at her.

"No, I don't," Princess argued. "Why don't you tell me?"

"You murdered my brother seven years ago when you competed in a blood sport!" He began snarling at her, showing his fangs, raising his ears and hackles, and lifting up his tail. "You don't remember the young wolf who looked just like me who you murdered because you defeated him the first time your father allowed you to compete in the Blood Sports! He's the one you sliced open from his throat down to his belly and ripped all his guts out!"

Princess remembered now and now understood why Scava had been so angry with her the day after they met. And now she knew why he was so familiar looking. She remembered seeing him in tears after killing the wolf he was talking about. She never knew that had been his brother, or she never would've killed him. Scava had been a good friend of hers when she was a rogue wolf. "I-I-I," she stammered. "I wouldn't have killed him if I'd known that was your brother!" she yelped, shocked. "You remember how good friends we were when they were puppies!"

"'Were' being the key word, you bitch," Scava growled. "I'll never forgive you not because you killed him but because of how brutally you killed him and the fact that you never apologized!"

"I just told you I didn't know he was your brother!" Princess barked. She was now challenging Scava by copying his posture—raised ears and hackles, lifted up tail, lowered head, and bared fangs, and snarling at him when she didn't speak. "If I had known he was your brother, I wouldn't have killed him! I would've spared him!"

"It's too late for apologies!" Scava snapped. "You should've apologized seven years ago or at least found out he was my brother! I'm going to kill you for what you did to him!" He screamed at her, and then lunged, only to get a face full of volcanic ash. He coughed miserably, spit the ash out, coughed again, then he was back up again.

"You don't have to do this!" Princess yelped, dodging him again. "I'm sorry about killing your brother!"

"Fuck your apologies!" Scava roared. "You murdered him seven years ago, and it's too late for you to apologies! I won't stop until I kill you!" He lunged through the air at Princess for a third time and landed on her back this time. Scava sank his fangs into her neck, and took a small chunk of flesh out. She screamed, arched her back, and threw the smaller wolf off her back.

That didn't stop Scava. He was on her back again, clawing and biting small bites out of her back and neck. Princess screamed every time he took bites out of her flesh.

"DAMN YOU!" Princess roared, and buried her fangs into Scava's breast in an instant. Only she didn't mess around—she _buried_ her fangs into his flesh so deeply that blood sprayed all over her face. She didn't stop chewing on his chest, causing more blood to spray all over her face, and Scava to scream more. Princess suddenly removed her fangs from his chest, and then backed off without leaving her defensive posture.

"Are you done?" Princess asked him.

"I'll never be done until one of us dies!" Scava snarled, and then lunged.

Princess jumped out of the way, and Scava found himself on his belly in the volcanic ash again. He cursed as he stood up and spit out more of the ash. He coughed once again, and then he focused his attention on his brother's killer again, landing on her back. He ended up with the claws on his front paws digging into her far side, and his hind claws digging into the side of her body closest to his belly. No matter how much she shook, Scava's claws dug into her body, and her movements caused his claws to dig deeper into her flesh. Screaming and cursing, she allowed herself to fall over in such a way that the volcanic glass, also known as obsidian, cut into Scava's body. That did it, and he released his grip.

Princess was bleeding badly, and licking her numerous wounds as Scava groaned in agony because of the volcanic glass cutting into his own flesh. The human definition of obsidian was "a jet-black volcanic glass, chemically similar to granite and formed by the rapid cooling of molten lava, that was used by early civilizations of humans for manufacturing tools and ceremonial objects." Another human definition of volcanic glass was "natural glass formed when molten lava from a volcano cools too quickly to crystallize." For Scava, it felt like a bunch of broken ice was cutting into his flesh every time he moved. It was difficult for him to get up.

Princess was taking advantage of Scava being disabled by the volcanic glass cutting his flesh like a bunch of tiny knives. She was licking all of her wounds with her rough tongue until they stopped bleeding, as well as resting. Fighting Scava, and having small chunks of flesh taken out of her body, had taken a lot of energy out of her quickly. She was losing a lot of blood from her largest gashes but had managed to lick her small wounds, the ones caused by Scava's claws, not his teeth, until they stopped bleeding. Now, she was focusing on the places where he'd bitten her deeply. It took two to four minutes of constant licking for her to stop the bleeding of just one of the bites. And stopping the bleeding of one of her bites was all she had time for before Scava was back on her back again, bleeding all over her and the ground. He had numerous pieces of volcanic glass stuck in his body, mostly on his entire right side and his back.

Scava snarled like a possessed wolf and didn't mess around with what he did next. He sank his fangs deeper than ever into Princess's neck, dangerously close to her jugular vein. The jugular was the major vein in any animal's body because it carried blood from an animal's heart to its head. There was an inflection among wolves known as "go for the jugular" that referred to attacking someone in such a way that it was immediately very damaging. Scava was attempting that now, attacking Princess in such a way that will immediately do the most damage if he succeeded in burying his fangs in her jugular vein.

Scava was frenzied as he chewed on Princess's throat, causing her blood to spray all over the volcanic glass-covered ground, his face and neck, and even Princess's face. She was screaming in agony and unable to get Scava off her, even if she was the better fighter, the bigger wolf, and the stronger of the two. Between the grip he had on both sides of her body with his claws and the chewing on her neck he was doing, Princess was all but defenseless. She was losing so much blood, even if he hadn't struck her jugular yet, that it was weakening her.

Princess tried to say, "You got your revenge, you fucker," but Scava cut her off by screaming these words are her: "Don't speak bitch! Just die, die, die!" Scava knew he had his fangs in Princess's jugular now because of how much blood there was suddenly, but she wasn't dying. Scava lost it because of this. He wanted the bitch who murdered her brother dead! He didn't care that she was suffering. He just wanted her dead! "WHY CAN'T YOU DIE?!" he roared. "WHY CAN'T YOU JUST FUCKING DIE!"

Then Scava closed his jaws on her neck, and pulled back, tearing a massive chunk out flesh out of her neck. He was positive he'd torn her jugular open, and probably out, too, considering how much flesh he had in his mouth.

Princess was dead weight now and she collapsed in the volcanic glass, which cut her body up severely. Scava got off the dying wolf, satisfied at his bloody, brutal work. In his mind, she deserved to suffer so much before dying because of how brutally she'd killed his little brother seven years ago.

Scava heard snarling—probably from three different animals—so he looked up to a sight that made him smile. He remembered how they'd found Geoff, a rogue from Banff, dying, and he'd warned them about rabid wolverines before dying because of his wounds inflicted by those wolverines. They were just coming around the volcanic class-covered hillside. They were foaming at the mouth, a white froth all over their lips, which dripped onto the volcanic glass, which they seemed unaware that it was cutting into their feet.

"Just what I wanted," Scava snarled and kicked volcanic glass and ash into Princess's eyes. She was breathing labored breaths and bleeding heavily from the gash in her jugular vein. "Have fun with your new friends…bitch!" Then he ran off to leave her for the rabid wolverines.

_Just what she deserves_, he thought, even more satisfied. He wouldn't even have to waste any more energy to kill her! The rabid wolverines could just do it for him. Princess was coughing as Scava disappeared from view, running toward the survivors' den, screaming like something was wrong.

Princess forgot about Scava now as the three rabid wolverines stood over her, the white foam dripping from their mouths onto her breast and face. It also got into the hole torn in her neck as one of the wolverines ate the chunk of flesh from her neck. Scava had left it behind to give them a taste of Princess's blood and flesh. The last thing Princess remembered before everything went back for her was the rabid wolverines going into a frenzy after sharing the chunk of her flesh, and their jaws coming at her in a mixture of splattering white foam, the roars of the rabid wolverines, and her own blood flying through the air with the foam and the roars...


	16. Tension is Raised

**Chapter 15**

**Tension is Raised**

Claws had an uneasy feeling and that was why she woke up. She immediately noticed two wolves were missing and woke everyone up before asking the group one question:

"Where's Princess?" Then she realized Princess wasn't the only wolf who was missing. It pissed her off when she realized who they both were. "WHERE THE FUCK IS SCAVA?!" she roared. "Just that the two of them are missing dives me nothing but terrible feelings. Scava hates Princess's guts!"

Kate didn't response to Claws's question for one reason. She thought she heard screaming and so did a few others. "Who the hell is screaming?" Kate asked.

"HELP!" a deep male voice screamed from a distance of about a hundred feet. "It's Princess! Help!"

"Stay here, Claws!" Humphrey ordered.

The other wolves, Mica, Magril, and Fleet excluded, ran out of the den to see Scava running toward the den. His dark gray face was covered in blood.

"STOP!" Stinky roared, causing Scava to skid to a stop.

He didn't stop panicking and screaming until Kate cuffed him across the head.

"Now calm down and tell us what happened to Princess," Kate commanded.

"Princess and I…w-we were t-talking about Baffin Island and what we would do once we g-got there when…" He tried wiping the blood away, but gave up when Kate cuffed him for it. "…we were attacked by rabid wolverines. We…we hadn't expected it, and the three of them were all over Princess. S-She told me r-run even when I t-tried to help her, and I did. Oh," he moaned miserably, "I should've stayed with her…"

Kate was horrified. "Take us there, quickly," she barked at him.

"It's 900 feet from here…"

"I don't give a shit if it's one foot or one mile from here," Kate said. "Just take us there!"

* * *

After being joined by Claws, the group went those 900 feet and they found a bloody—no, a gory scene that caused Claudette to pass out immediately. Princess's body was torn to pieces, chunks of flesh, her internal organs, and a lot of blood all over the volcanic ash and volcanic glass-covered ground. In many places all over her body, the flesh had been eaten down to the bone, mostly on the spots over her spinal column, skull, and breast.

Claws was pissed off and tried to kill Scava, literally. And she would've if some of the wolves were present—Kate, Humphrey, Runt, and Stinky—hadn't held her back as she spat all sorts of profanities.

"YOU MOTHERFUCKER!" Claws roared. "You killed Princess! You fucking killed her!"

"I didn't kill her, the rabid wolverines did!" Scava argued. "I tried to save her!"

"Bullshit!" Claws snapped. "Everything you told us is bullshit! You hated Princess and would've done anything to kill her! You prove it that you didn't kill her, or I'll poke out your eyes, bite off your ears and muzzle, and tear off your fucking dick! If I don't do the first two things, I'll turn you into A BITCH!"

"I have Princess's blood all over my face because I tried to get her away from the wolverines but they got her," he lied, "but t-they tore her apart before my eyes…and t-that's when she told me to just run. I saw them do all these things to her…they tore all these chunks of flesh off and out of her body…I've never seen such ravenous animals before!" he wailed.

"I could've said the same goddamn thing!" another female snapped. It was not Claws but Kate. "You expect us to believe that? If I was involved in this, I could've said the exact same thing you just did after seeing Princess's remains!"

"I'm not lying! Why do you think I'm wounded?!" Scava screeched. "I got cut up by the volcanic glass and all these rocks when I tried to ran away and fell. I panicked! Why don't you wolves believe me?" he asked sincerely. "I had nothing to do with Princess's death, I swear on my life, and I would rather be dead than know Princess was killed by those wolverines!"

"I'll believe you for now," Kate decided, partially, in a bitter tone. "But know this, Scava: if you are every alone with one of us when he or she dies…I will kill you worse than how Claws described she would kill you. Do you understand me?"

"Yes, I do," Scava said, his voice shaking.

"After we bury Princess," Claws said without even looking at the dark gray wolf, "you'd better stay the fuck away from me. If you get too close to me, I will lose my head, and it may happen to you in the literal sense. After we bury my good friend, Princess…get out of sight you bastard, you piece of shit."

Claws began digging into the volcanic ash, cursing and condemning Scava. She doubted that he wasn't at least partially involved with Princess's death, if not entirely. _Fucking liar,_ Claws thought. _Goddamn pussyfoot got Princess killed…I'll never forgive him for this whether he makes it to Baffin Island or not. I fucking hope he don't make it too much further or I'll scream, bite my own feet off and slice my own throat just to get away from him…Maybe I'll do it to him instead, but suicide is better than another day with this worthless fuck._


	17. The Train

**Chapter 16**

**The Train**

Claws was usually a strong-willed wolf. Of all of the surviving wolves, she was probably the strongest willed of all the survivors. But now, she was not showing that. She was stone-faced and emotionless after what happened to her good friend Princess. She just knew that Scava had something to do with it. He might've even been the one who killed Princess and just used that excuse of rabid wolverines to get off. Then again, they'd found Geoff, a former rogue, dying several days ago, and he'd said he'd been attacked by rabid wolverines before he died, so it could be the truth. But…Scava could've just said that because of what Geoff said, and he just made the rabid wolverines up. Regardless of what really happened—they would never know unless Scava he'd admit to it—Claws will always be pissed off about what happened to Princess and would never forgive Scava if he survives to Baffin Island. She just knew that Runt felt the same way about Scava because Princess had been his mate, who might've been pregnant because they'd mated shortly before the world ended and she'd been in heat. (When a female wolf was in heat, it was next to impossible for her not to get pregnant if she mated.)

Claws couldn't believe that the same wolf who'd saved her life was the same wolf who caused her closest friend's death, and possibly killed her, too. She'd been in debt of both Scava and Princess for saving her life, but now, the only debt she owed anyone was to Princess to be sure that Scava died a brutal death. If it were possible, she'd sterilize then kill the fucker. He might've saved her life, but that one good act didn't mean shit Claws know that he'd caused Princess's day, in addition to Candy's death when they'd been in the park rangers' station.

It was now just under fourteen-and-a-half days since Princess was supposedly killed by rabid wolverines when the eleven surviving wolves—Scava, Lilly, Kate, Humphrey, Claws, Claudette, Runt, Stinky, Mica, Fleet, and Magril, and Marco, the crow—found a train track. That was also when Kate gave a command to the wolves that they would rest here for an hour, since they'd been traveling for over half a day without taking a break. Scava, for his own good, was traveling at the back of the group where no one could see him. Claws and Runt were ready to kill him for what happened to Princes, and probably would if they saw him.

Claws and Runt were mourning Princess right at the edge of the seemingly abandoned train tracks while everyone else hung back to leave them alone. They were both crying and attempting to comfort each other. But they had lost the one wolf who was closer to both of them than of almost anyone else who was alive. Claws hadn't been closer to any of her fellow survivors than she had been to Princess after Scar died. Now that Princess was gone…she had no idea who she was closest to out of everyone. It sure as hell wasn't that fucking Scava. She still appreciated that he'd helped save her life, but even that hardly meant anything to her. Princess and Scava had saved her life while Sweets died only for Scava to—she believed—kill her best friend. If he didn't kill her like he claimed, she knew for sure that he was at least partially responsible. Maybe he'd mortally wounded her and left her for dead so she could be finished off by those rabid wolverines. The wolves who'd followed Scava to where it happened had smelled the scent of wolverines and the white foam that appeared at the mouths of rabid animals. He wasn't lying about the wolverines. But was Scava lying about what exactly happened between him and Princess? They'd never know unless he admitted it and there was a better chance of a fucking zombie apocalypse happening before he told the entire truth and not just part of it!

Princess's death, possibly murder, had made Claws and Runt closer to each other than they ever had been before. They both loved Princess dearly, albeit in different ways. Runt loved Princess as a mate—she had been his possibly pregnant mate after they'd mated not long before the world ended. Claws loved Princess like a friend and like a sister. Although he would never marry another female, just like Claws would never marry another male, most likely, if they survived, Claws would be the closest thing Runt would ever have as a mate again and Runt was the closest thing Claws would ever have as a mate again. There wasn't anyone else they would marry if they had to choose someone other than Princess and Scar, their deceased mates, to marry. Of course, Claws wouldn't be the first older female Runt married, if they did, but she was two years older than he was, unlike Princess, who had been only a year older than Runt was.

Runt was the first of the two to speak, something neither of them had done for a while, even if they'd been consoling each other with their words. "Scava can burn in Hell forever," he muttered. "He can burn in the deepest pits of Hell forever," Runt corrected himself.

"Hell is too good a place for someone like Scava," Claws responded. She was resting right next to Runt like he and Princess always used to do in their den at night. "He doesn't deserve to go to Heaven or Hell. He just needs to be gone. Not on Earth, not in Heaven, not in the deepest pits of Hell. Just gone. Just forgotten. I never thought I'd say that about another wolf other than King and Queen."

Runt didn't know if he should being feeling this way or not. He was saying that someone actually deserved to go to Hell just because Scava possibly murdered his mate. Hell was a place for bad beings were sent suffer forever, and he was sure King, Queen, and any other rogue who died when the world ended had gone there, but did he really know for sure if Scava had anything to do with Princess's death, as likely possibility it was.

"Is that a train?" Claws and Runt heard Magril ask. No one else heard it at first, but before anyone could ask what she meant, they heard a loud whistling sound. It was getting louder. The ground was shaking not because of yet another earthquake but because of the train that was about to pass them.

"We'd better get away from the tracks, Runt," Claws said, and then two wolves walked away from the tracks only half a minute before the train sped by them. It blew wind through their fur as they watched it go by.

Kate's ears perked up. "We should get on that train," she said. "It's heading in the same direction we're headed—to Baffin Island. It'll get there in half the time we would on foot. And if it ends up not going that way…well, then we can just get off and walk the rest of the way, but it would be good to travel for a while without having to walk so far."

Just as Fleet hopped onto the train as it passed by him, it sped up suddenly before anyone else could get on board it with him. The wolves couldn't catch the train no matter how fast they ran.

"Oh…shit!" Claws yelped in horror. "Look at the tracks!"

Just behind the train, they realized after the ground began shaking because of an earthquake and not just the train now, was a rift opening up in the ground. It was moving in the direction the train went.

"Fleet!" Claudette and Magril screamed as the wolves ran along the side of the train tracks. They repeatedly cried his name as they ran, everyone else following them, Scava and Marco the crow included.

"Get off the train!" Magril screamed and barked. But Fleet couldn't hear his mate and sister's screams, barks, and shouts over the loudness of the train. He was looking out the side of the train, confused by why they weren't trying to catch the train rather than yelling something he couldn't hear at all.

"FLEET!" Scava roared, for he had the loudest voice. "GET OFF THE TRAIN NOW! JUMP!"

But it was too late. The part of the train Fleet was in disappeared into the rifting in the ground, and the rest of the train was gone eventually. Looking away from the ball of fire erupting out of the ground, Claudette and Magril let out horrified screams when they saw a trail of blood coming out of the rift. It led to a severed head lying five feet away from the rift. The eyes were still open and the mouth was stuck in a scream. It was Fleet's head. His blood was all over the railing that the train had been about to go through it disappeared into the ground. There was a sharp, broken piece of metal sticking off the cage-liking railing and it had decapitated Fleet when he'd looked for the last time to see what was going on.

"NO!" Claudette and Magril wailed in unison. "FLEET!" They made an attempt to run for his severed head, because that was all that was left Claudette's younger mate who was Magril's older brother. As much as they hated to, Claws and Runt were holding them back so they wouldn't be there if the ground happened to split open. And they couldn't just carry a severed head around, as much as they all loved the wolf who it had belonged to minutes earlier. Mica had been wounded by the explosion when it had sent a broken and extremely hot piece of metal through the air right into her shoulder. Although it hadn't gone too deep into her flesh, it still hurt like a bitch, Mica thought as she screamed in pain. Stinky was at her side. He was licking the average-sized gash in her shoulder, hoping to stop the bleeding before it got too bad. The metal

Magril was on her knees, at Runt's side, wailing and bawling her eyes out. "Oh, Fleet," she wailed, "Fleet! Why Fleet?! Why?! FLEET, NO! Oh, Fleet…Fleet…Fleet…no…not my brother…"


	18. One Night on the Docks

**Chapter 17**

**One Night on the Docks**

785 miles. That was how far the now ten (originally fifteen) and one crow were from Baffin Island. They'd just reached the dock several days after Fleet died at the train tracks, decapitated by a broken piece of metal. Mica had recovered enough by the next morning to walk the same distance she had before getting a piece of red hot and broken metal stuck in her left shoulder.

It was almost 800 miles away, but they could just barely make out Baffin Island at the horizon. The sun was going down now, so they'd sleep here for the night, and then begin their swim for the island. They didn't really know what they would do if they couldn't find an island or something solid to sleep on at nights. They couldn't swim 785 miles straight without resting. None of them could. Such a swim was too physically demanding for even the strongest wolves like Scava and Stinky.

Kate and Humphrey were talking to Marco now about such a thing.

"Marco," Kate was saying, "do you know of any islands, rocks, or anything like that we can all rest on at night so we don't have to stay in the water constantly? I can already tell my just dipping my paw in the water that its ice cold at night. We wouldn't last spending several nights in this."

"There may be a few," Marco said. "Do you want me to go out and scout for an hour to see if I can find you one for tomorrow night?"

"That would be appreciated greatly," Humphrey said. "But why an hour? It shouldn't take that long to find an island for us, should it?"

"You never know," the crow said. "It could take me ten minutes to find an island or it could take sixty minutes to find an island. I'll try to be as fast as possible." Marco took off after flapping his wings twice. He headed northeast, in the direction of the island.

"I hope there are some rocks, small islands, or docks like this one out there in the bay we can rest on," Kate almost whimpered. "I mean, I know that there are islands made for ships out in the middle of oceans and bays for humans to take their ships and boats to be safer during storms. I'd prefer those over anything…"

Humphrey nuzzled his mate's cheek with his muzzle, and then said, "Let's get back to the group so we can get some sleep. I'm sure Marco will wake us up when he gets back to tell us what he finds…"

"…hopefully he finds something," Kate added darkly.


	19. Two Couples Talk

**Chapter 18**

**Two Couples Talk**

"I don't know if I trust Scava anymore," Mica said to her mate Stinky. "Not after what happened to Princess, I don't."

"I had a bad feeling about him from the start," Stinky said angrily, through clenched teeth. "You could just sense something bad about him the way he'd always acted around Princess…"

"All we can hope for now is that Marco finds something for us to rest on by nightfall tomorrow when we're swimming across the bay," Mica sighed. "And that something bad will happen to Scava…maybe he'll get killed by a shark that swam inland or something…I want him dead for what happened to Princess. I can't imagine what Runt is going through, regardless of how Princess died and who or what killed her."

"Maybe I should kill Scava in his sleep," he said. "I know Claws and Runt would be up for helping me."

"No, Stinky! Don't," Mica cautioned. "He'd hear you three coming and wonder what you're doing."

"We'd kill him even if he wakes up," Stinky pressed. "Claws and Runt personally want to send him to Hell for what he possibly did to Princess."

"There's no 'possibly' about it, Stinky—" Mica normally would've called him dear instead of by his name, but she didn't use affectionate terms when she was angry. "—Scava hated Princess. Why do you think there's a chance he didn't kill her when you know damn well he did? If he died, wouldn't you have known for a fact that Princess or Claws killed him? They hate him as much as he hated Princess. Claws doesn't care if he saved her life—she still wants him dead no matter what good things he did for us, which are more than the bad things, but those overshadow any good he's done for us so far!"

Stinky nodded his gray head. "Yes, I understand," he said. "If Scava somehow survivors this journey—it looks like he's going to—he'd better stay away from anyone who survives from our group. They won't want to be around him, and I know Claws and Runt definitely won't hesitate to kill him. I can't imagine what they'd do if it wasn't for my parents keeping them under control."

"It would be good for Kate and Humphrey to be away so Claws and Runt could have their way with Scava," Mica said in an almost evil way. "I'm sure they'd be brutal with him before they got back. I'm almost tempted to convince them to go away for a bit so that can happen…I would love to see that fucker get what's coming to him. I know he'll get what he deserves soon, even if it happens when he goes to Hell, which I'm sure he will. A wolf like him would never get into Heaven."

Stinky wanted to change the subject. "How's your shoulder doing?" he asked.

He noticed there were still signs of the hot piece of metal having been lodged in the flesh of her shoulder. The fur had been burned off in the spot where the metal had shot into her shoulder, and there was, obviously, a cut in the visible flesh where it had gone in. It had been Claudette and Magril who removed the metal form Mica's shoulder. They'd learned a lot from Eve, Candy, and Sweets, who were geniuses in the healing arts, before the world ended.

"It's feeling much better," Mica whispered. "It's definitely better than the day I got that piece of metal launched into my shoulder. I j-just wish Fleet hadn't been killed then. I can't imagine what Claudette and Magril are going through. They're both widows now, and Magril has no brothers or sisters to comfort her about it. Your sister has you and Runt, and Runt has you and Claudette to console him over Princess, but Magril has no one."

"Claws has been with Runt and Magril to comfort them," he said. "She's asleep now with their on either side of her, see?" Stinky pointed at Claws with his paw. Mica looked, and sure enough, Runt was on her right side, and Magril was on her left side.

"I'm going to follow their example and get some sleep. You should do the same, Stinky." And then she got in a comfortable position on the dock, curled up. She was asleep before her mate could say anything else, so he just joined her by lying down right next to her on the left side.

* * *

Just as Stinky was talking to his mate Mica, another wolf couple was talking to each other at the other end of the docks, near the ocean rather than the land. It was Kate and Humphrey. Their conversation had not been going on for quite as long as Stinky and Mica's conversation, which was ending right about now, and it was not about Scava, nor was it as serious as theirs had been.

"Humphrey…I'm really scared to lose you," Kate whimpered. "I don't want anything happening to you and our pups." Kate began crying, which was something she never did. Not much made her cry. She usually got angry over things, but now she was scared beyond belief. It was after Princess and Fleet's brutal deaths that she began realizing what they were really up against. She feared that Humphrey and maybe even one of their children would die next. She didn't want anyone to die—except for that heartless motherfucker Scava. She wanted him to die in the most brutal way possible. "I love you too much…," she cried." I don't know how I'll survive if something happens to you, Humphrey…" Then she added in a sad voice, "I'd be dead if it wasn't for what you did when the caribou stampeded at the wedding of Garth and I…"

Humphrey licked Kate's brown face, wrapped his front legs around her, and then said, "Nothing will happen to me or our pups. I'll make sure nothing happens to anyone else, even if that means resorting to killing Scava to keep my promise. I'll do what's best for all of us. Scava is not one of us. He never will be for what he did to or let happen to Princess. Just because he helped save Claws's life doesn't make up Princess's death any."

Kate was still in tears regardless of what Humphrey did for her. "I'm scared of this whole world now," she whimpered again. "Everything about it scares me—Scava included. There's something about him he's not telling us. Something bad."

"What do you mean?" Humphrey cocked his head. "Do you think he had something to do with Princess's death? And maybe Scar and Candy, too?"

"Possibly with Princess's death, but not with the other two. But that was not what I meant," she added. "I meant that I feel like there's something bad about where he's from. I know he told Princess that he's from Red Deer Park, but I don't believe that. Scava's acted out violently since we've met him, and the Red Deer Park wolves don't act like that…"

As Kate and Humphrey went on talking about her speculations regarding Scava, they were not aware that he was not sleeping. He was still wide-awake, with his eyes closed, listening to everything they'd said and were saying.

_Be that way, you Omega's whore_, Scava thought. _I'll take good care of Humphrey and you when the time comes just for saying that. I had nothing against you two until now…you won't be Humphrey's whore when I get done with you. You're stupid for marrying a fuckin' Omega. Omegas are the scum of wolf society, and they all need to be tied to trees and burned. So do Alpha whores like you and Princess for marrying Omegas like Humphrey and Runt. Your time will come for the both of you, soon… _


	20. The Swim Begins

**Chapter 19**

**The Swim Begins**

Claws yelped loudly as the wolves went into the water the next morning. It was foggy out and the water was still ice cold. She almost jumped right out of the water onto the dock again.

"Aw, damn this is cold!" she barked. "Do we really have to swim 785 miles in this water?"

"It'll get warmer when the sun rises," Marco assured them as he flew over.

"Did you find a dock or something for us to sleep on tonight," Kate asked. "One that will keep us safe from hurricanes?"

"Yes, I did," the crow answered. "I find one of those 'islands' you referred to last night. The ones that ships use to be safe during storms. The bay is full of those 'islands.' Their all about the same distance apart, and you can swim to each one by nightfall."

"Would you know if it's to reach the second one by nightfall?" Claudette asked. Her eyes were red from all the crying she'd done last night over Fleet's death. Magril's eyes were just as red, too.

"I don't think it would be possible," Marco sighed. "I would recommend that you only go to one island per day. You'll get there in a few days, and won't be as exhausted by nightfall, whether it's possible or not. There's been enough death in the past few weeks. You don't need to lose any more of your friends or relatives."

"I just hope it gets warm fast," Claws complained. "I don't like swimming in cold water," she added as the wolves began paddling through the ice-cold bay.

Kate and Humphrey were swimming at the front of the group. Claudette, Runt, and Stinky were behind them. Claws, Mica, and Magril were behind them. And at the back of the swimming group of wolves was Scava, who was being watched carefully by Marco, as he flew over the group. Not only was he making sure Scava didn't do anything. He was also keeping an eye out for possible dangers in the water—mostly sharks that could've wandered into the bay or a hurricane like he'd seen the last time he'd been here.

Kate was in deep thought about who those wolves Marco had seen here many weeks ago could've been. He said that he'd seen an older female wolf, two younger male wolves, and some female wolf with her, among others. Given the descriptions, it sounded like he'd seen Eve, Garth, and Hutch. They weren't sure who the other young female could be. Kate was so caught up in her thoughts about whom those wolves could be that she had almost forgotten how cold the water was. She was paddling with her front legs and kicking with her hind legs as she swam. She'd always look at Humphrey with a concerned look on her face. Just as she had been last night, she was still worried that something bad would happen to Humphrey. She'd said this to him last night: "Humphrey…I'm really scared to lose you. I don't want anything happening to you and our pups. I love you too much…I don't know how I'll survive if something happens to you, Humphrey…"

Kate had never been that scared before, not even when she'd almost died because of the caribou stampede. It wasn't herself that could die—it was her mate and their three children. She'd rather die than lose them. She'd never loved a wolf as much as she loved Humphrey, and never would love someone better than him. When they'd grown up together as pups and adolescents before and after Kate had gone to Alpha school, they'd always been good friends, and maybe even a little more. And Kate might be an Alpha, but she didn't know how she'd survive, physically and mentally, without her mate. The mental part was she wouldn't be able to go on living with Humphrey, and it would kill her on the inside spiritually. She'd lose her spirit and morale to go on living if he lost his life. Kate felt the same way about Claudette, Runt, Stinky, and her sister Lilly.

The other part was that Humphrey had taken care of Kate for so long, since they became the pack leaders of the united Eastern and Western Packs, that she'd lost much of her ability to catch her own food without help. Basically, Humphrey had treated her like a Queen by doing everything for her. If he died, she'd have no one to get food for her, and she would not survive. Not to mention he'd always kept her safe after the world ended and during the short war between the Jasper wolves and the Banff rogues at least two years ago. Not only would her life not meant shit without Humphrey, her life would go to shit and go to Hell if he died. Her life would be a meaningless, shitty, and hellish one without her loving, loyal mate. The only things that were Kate's personal hell were—losing Humphrey, losing their children, losing her sister, losing her parents (which had already happened), and losing her closest friends, which had happened even though she still had friends like Claws left. Out of this entire group, Claws was the only wolf who wasn't related to Kate in some way, excluding Scava, but they'd never consider him a friend, especially not after what happened to Princess when he'd been alone with her.

* * *

When nightfall came around, the wolves had swum about one-seventh of the way. That is, they swam around 112 miles out of the 785 miles it would take them to reach Baffin Island, where they hoped they'd finally be safe.

Mica fell asleep with Stinky—lying on top of him, hind legs and tail stuck out behind her. Mica entangled her own tail with Stinky's, and then they fell asleep in that position. And Claws fell asleep between them and Magril, right up against her side. Claws was lying on her back, head on Magril's back, and Magril on her belly on a moss-like substance growing on the rocks. It was comfortable for them to lie there in the positions they were.

"I can still see Baffin Island from here," Claws said, looking over her large, pregnant belly. "I feel like it is taunting us with its presence. We want to be there, yet it's about 673 miles away from here." She paused to lie her head back down on Magril's back, then said, "Just six more days of swimming 112 miles…joy, joy," she added with a sarcastic bite. "I cannot wait for that. It sounds like heaven…and so does this island." But it reality, Claws feared that nothing but pure Hell would great them when they reached Baffin Island…if they did!


	21. Baffin Island

**Chapter 20**

**Baffin Island**

"We're almost there, Claws!" Kate shouted. "Can you hold up for a bit longer? It's only ten feet away!"

"I can hold up, but I'm getting sick of swimming in ice-cold water every morning!" Claws shouted back. "I'm freezing my pregnant belly off!" she added in serious, yet joking voice. "I hope these pups are gonna be alright when we reach this damn island!"

When the wolves and the crow finally reached Baffin Island, most of them were shuddering because of how cold they were because of the water, which was always cold in the morning until about midday. Claws was the coldest of them all, partially due to her pregnancy. Claudette, Runt, Stinky, Mica, and Magril gathered around Claws on all sides. They were using their combined body heats to keep Claws and each other warm. The adults were doing that, Scava included. Right now, Scava didn't care whom he was sharing body heat with so long as he didn't freezing to death! He'd rather being sharing body heat with Omegas and Jasper wolves than freeze to death when he was so close to freedom. He was so cold that the one eye he had left was hurting. The black cloth mask he'd stolen to hide his mutilated face wasn't doing much to keep his face warm. It was soaking wet. Kate thought he was stupid for keeping the fucking thing on.

"Take that damned thing off, Scava," Kate snapped. "It's soaking wet and I'm not surprised you're colder than the rest of us! Use your brain, Scava!"

_Snippy bitch_, Scava thought, but instead he said, "Fine." Then he took the mask off, and threw the soaking wet cloth on the ground. His face had been mutilated by Princess worse than they thought. There was no fur on the right side where she'd clawed him. His right eye was gone, and his ear was torn off on that side. It was just a pink, almost bloody colored flesh on the entire right side of his face. His eye socket was empty, but his flesh was starting to grow over the wound. They could tell what was going on with his eye regardless of the eye patch, which was, remarkably, still dry. It was the driest thing here, excluding Marco. But even Marco was wet because of the water. He'd been splashed by the currents as he'd flown over the bay, but he was drier than any of the wolves who were shivering were. The wolves would occasionally shake their bodies to get the water off themselves, but even when that action got them dry, they were still shivering. They moved to do a dry patch of earth, where the little water left on them soaked into the ground, leaving it dry. Yet the wolves were still freezing cold, but at least they had more body heat to share.

Claws was the wolf who warmed up entirely, and she was thankful of that. She didn't know how badly her unborn puppies, whom could come out at any time now, had been affected by the cold and the ice water. She hoped that she was affected worse by it than her unborn puppies had. For Scar's sake, Claws and her puppies had to all survive. Being on Baffin Island greatly increased everyone's chances at survival because it was not on or anywhere near a fault line. It was so far away from any faults that even another 10.5 earthquake, like the one that destroyed The Howling Rock, would hardly have any affect this massive island.

Obviously, once everyone warmed up, they would not stay at the coastline of the island but would move to the center. Not only was it too high of a risk to stay here because of possible hurricanes and other usually tropical storms, no one would look for them here. If what Marco, the crow, had said about seeing survivors was true, and if they were Jasper wolves, the wolves he saw and any other survivors would've moved to the center of the island, where it was safer than anywhere else. And when they got there, Kate and Humphrey would demand that Scava find another wolf pack, or remnants of one, to live with. Because of what happened to Princess, they would never let him join their pack again. And hopefully Claws gave birth after they reached the center of the island, where there sure would be caves and dens for all the wolves to live in.

"Claudette, Runt, Stinky," Kate began instructing her and Humphrey's children, "I want you to take Claws, Mica, and Magril with you now to the center of the island. You all move so much faster than we do, and that is a good thing. We can't afford to waste time for Claws's sake. If she gives birth here, there won't be any good or safe places to create a den for her. You must get her to the center of the island now."

"What about you?" Claws asked.

"We'll catch up as soon as we can," Humphrey said. "Kate, Scava, Marco, and I will follow you, but I want you to get there long before us. Marco will hopefully be able to scout from the air and find a faster path to the center of the island for us. Maybe even let us know if there are any wolves there, besides all of you eventually, and dens there for us all to live in."

"Be careful, you three," Claws said to Kate, Lilly, and Humphrey, without even looking at Scava. She didn't say it to him because she wanted him to fall in a fucking ditch and laid on a sharp rock that could send his entrails right out of his fucking body! Claws knew damn well that Scava killed Princess. She wasn't some stupid female like the one she was sure Scava thought she was! Claws was smart enough to know that Scava killed Princess. There was no denying that given the facts. Scava hated Princess and she'd hated him. Not to mention how she'd threatened his life when they first met and then tore half his face off. It was too obvious, given all that, that he'd killed Princess. She didn't want to leave Kate, Lilly, and Humphrey with that fucker for one second. She feared that Scava would do something to Kate or Humphrey like he did to Princess. Maybe even both of them! But what could see do? She was pregnant and the others didn't have as much experience as she did. Not even Claudette, Stinky, Mica, and Magril, who were all Alpha wolves, had as much as experience as Claws did. "You pull any of the bullshit you did with Princess," Claws warned Scava, "and I'll see to it myself you die the most brutal death possible when I see you again. I don't care if you saved my life. What you did to Princess makes that meaningless to me, you piece of shit. I hope you don't make it to the center of the island. I'm sick and tired of seeing your ugly face every time I turn around. I'd like to tear the other half off and feed it those wolverines that killed Princess."

Claws left with the five adolescent wolves before Scava had a chance to retort.

He almost said, "I'd like to tear that bitch's unborn puppies right out of her," but he remembered how Kate, Lilly, and Humphrey weren't very far away from him. So he said nothing about her.

"We're leaving now, correct?" Lilly asked her older sister.

"Not quite yet," Kate said. "I can sense how tired you two are. I think we may rest up for an hour before we go." Kate looked up at the tree branch just over her. "Marco, I want you to go with the others, and let them know we're going to rest up for an hour before we go. Make sure you let them know that Lilly and Humphrey are tired."

Marco flew in Claws and the others' direction without saying anything. When the crow was out of sight, Scava thought, _Good. One less I'll have to kill. These two have_—He was referring to Kate and Humphrey—_slandered me for the last time. Claws said she'd kill me as brutally as possible, well, she's my inspiration for what I'm gonna do to them as soon as I get a chance. I have nothing against Lilly, but I can't let there be any witnesses to what I do...I'm sick of them treating me like dirt! They're gonna find out who I really am within the next hour!_


	22. An Unexpected Killer

**Chapter 21**

**An Unexpected Killer**

Lilly was sleeping while Kate and Humphrey wondered why Scava wandered off.

"What do you think, Kate?" he asked her.

"I don't know," Kate said. "Maybe he went off to die. Or maybe he got the clue we don't like him and finally decided to leave us. I just hope he don't come back. I'm about as tired of Scava as Claws is."

"As am I," Humphrey agreed. "It would be the best thing that happened to us yet, other than finally reaching this island, if he didn't come back. I know for a fact he killed Princess. How stupid does he think we are to believe he didn't kill her? You could sense the hate between Princess and Scava, even when they'd worked together to save Claws's life."

"I sensed their hate from each other from the moment we met Scava," Kate said in an almost correcting tone. "And since you mentioned it…what Scava did to Princess…well, it makes his act of helping save Claws's life almost meaningless, don't you think? Why would he even kill Princess? They don't know each other…or do they?"

"Kate-" Humphrey began

"Shit," Kate gasped.

"What is it?" Humphrey was alarmed. Kate rarely cursed like that unless she was angry or realized something bad.

"Did we ever stop to consider that Scava could've lied about being from Red Deer Park?" Kate asked him. "What if he's not?"

"Then where could he be from?" Humphrey was confused now.

"Banff." One word was all Kate needed to say to almost horrify her mate.

"What?!" he yelped. "But we've never seen him before! He's Princess's age, so why hadn't we seen him when we rescued Runt from the rogues? Or when the rogues tried to take over Jasper? This is the first time we've ever met Scava!"

"Are you so sure about that?" Kate asked darkly. "Think about it. Try to picture a rogue wolf who looked like a younger Scava, Humphrey. Close your eyes and picture it."

Humphrey did that and immediately realized what Kate meant. He tried picturing Scava as a young rogue and picturing a rogue who looked like a young Scava in his mind. They looked the same. It was speculation, but why would he picture a young rogue who looked exactly like Scava? He now remembered where he'd seen Scava before. It was after Runt had been taken to Banff by three rogues and the Eastern and Western Wolf Packs had followed them that far. There'd been a dark gray wolf, same color of fur that Scava had, who never left King's side. He'd flirted with Princess when she'd been watching over Runt when Humphrey had been distracting King and the three wolves who'd taken Runt from Jasper.

"You remember him now, don't you?" Kate asked two minutes later.

"Yes. Scava was the wolf we saw flirting with Princess before you'd attempted to rescue Runt," Humphrey said in a frightened voice. "But can we really be sure? That was so many years ago, and it could've been any rogue. It's not odd to see wolves with fur as dark as Scava's everywhere. There was a few in Jasper before the world ended. I'd easily confuse them with Scava after three years of not seeing someone who resembles him!"

"Are you saying it's not him just because you don't have any solid proof?" Kate growled.

"It's not that, but if he was a rogue, he would've attacked us by now," he argued. "The rogues are ignorant wolves. None of them would be smart enough to do what Scava has done—lie about where he's from and not kill anyone until when he attacked Princess."

"Believe what you want," Kate said. "He's a rogue."

Humphrey began shaking. "I-I…I need to go think about this in private…I can't take all this stress."

"Wait, Humphrey! Don't go off alone!" But it was too late. Before Kate's warning did any good, he was already out of sight, running through the tall grass.

Kate woke up Lilly and told her about how Humphrey had run off

"What?!" Lilly screamed. "What if something happens to him?"

"Scava will happen to him if we don't find him first," Kate whispered darkly.

"What do you mean?"

"Scava is a rogue from Banff," Kate explained. "He's the one we saw flirt with Princess before I'd attempted to rescue Runt from the rogues three years ago."

"Forget about the talking," Lilly said in a strong voice. "Let's just find Humphrey now and worry about killing Scava later."

* * *

It was almost dark out twenty minutes later when Humphrey stopped in a field. He'd run the entire twenty minutes and was almost entirely out of breath. He was sure he was all alone, but felt that Kate and Lilly were following him. They were far away but he could hear them shouting his name and for him to come back.

As he thought about what Kate had said about Scava, hoping that it was nothing more than speculation, which it wasn't, Humphrey was gasping for breath. Usually wolves could run for a long time, but they weren't supposed to for twenty minutes without taking a break. His paw pads were sweating, his muscles burning, and he was drooling on the soil he was laying on his side in. He'd never run that long before and he hoped he never would need to again. And although Humphrey was thinking about him, he'd completely forgotten that Scava had left him and the two girls alone at least twenty-five, maybe thirty, minutes ago.

Humphrey was so out of it because of all the running he'd done that he didn't hear the footsteps of another wolf nearby. Considering how soft they were, it was probably Kate or Lilly looking for him. If he were a rogue, Scava wouldn't have such soft footprints. A wolf, just one, was coming toward him through the tall grass he'd just run through.

The wolf came into view now. It was a dark gray wolf. Scava. His yellow eye glowed in the darkness. It was dark out and getting darker. Just looking at Humphrey, who was not facing him, seemed to cause Scava's eyes to glow brighter.

_You're first_, Scava thought, _then Lilly simply because you're Omegas. Kate will die last simply because she's an Alpha, albeit an Alpha whore who married a stupid Omega scumbag._

Humphrey stood up, his rear still facing Scava. Scava was thinking about how perfect this scenario was! If Humphrey kept his back toward him for any longer, he'd never seen who or what attacked him. And he'd never be able to tell Kate and Lilly, if he survived and they found him dying, who attacked him.

_You're dead you fuckin' Omega_, Scava thought, then lunged at Humphrey. His claws dug into the Omega's rear, causing blood to spray, and causing Humphrey to scream in agony. He was too far away from Kate and Lilly to be heard by them. They'd turned in the other direction after losing Humphrey's trail.

Scava tore out Humphrey's tail then brought him to the ground. He flipped him over. Humphrey gasped when he saw who his now unmasked killer was.

"Scava!" Humphrey yelped with terror.

"Shut the fuck up, you worthless fuckin' Omega," Scava barked. "You have no right to speak to me, an Alpha! Alphas will _always_ be better than you piece of shit wolves. You don't deserve to be called wolves—and you don't deserve to live! Lilly will share your fate because she's an Omega and Kate because she mated with an Omega, and slandered me. You and Kate slandered me, and I'll be damned if I allow anyone, especially an Omega and his whore, slander me and get away with it! I'm better than all you and everyone you sent ahead! They'll die to, starting with Runt because he's an Omega! I'll spare Claws only because she's pregnant and not related to you. If she weren't pregnant, I'd mutilate her first fir threatening me.

"You're a rogue from King's pack, aren't you?"

"Well, that's the smartest thing to come out of your mouth since I met you!" Scava laughed evilly. "Too bad you won't get a chance to say anything smart again! Any last words?"

"You can burn in Hell," Humphrey said, "and go fuck yourself while you're at it!"

"Only Omegas and their whores go to Hell," Scava said and then slashed Humphrey's throat open with his claws. The Omega went limp in an instant as blood gushed from the wound in his throat. "Alphas who do the right thing, including marrying only Alphas, will never go to Hell."

Humphrey died at the same moment Scava finished his sentence. The rogue Alpha spit on Humphrey's corpse, dug out his eyeballs, tore out his tongue, urinated on him, and then left before Kate and Lilly would have a chance to find him here. Of course, his scent was all over the corpse, but he'd wait in the grass and get them both after they showed up to mourn him. He ducked down in the grass and listened to the sisters shout Humphrey's name. He laughed evilly again and said, "He's dead and you won't be his whore anymore. Not when I'm done with you!"


	23. Many Truths Are Revealed

**Chapter 22**

**Many Truths Are Revealed**

"How could we have lost his trail?" Kate moaned miserably. "It just stopped at the bushes!" Lilly was trying to keep calm and to keep her older sister calm, but with Humphrey missing and Scava having run off, it was not easy for them to stay calm. Scava killed Princess and he didn't like Omegas…Humphrey was an Omega. They had every reason to be concerned. Scava, whom they were positive about being a rogue from King's pack, would kill Lilly and Humphrey before Kate because they were Omegas.

The rogue wolves of King's pack believed that the only "true wolves" were Alphas and that Betas and Omegas were worthless and the scum of the Earth. They thought it was wrong to allow Betas and Omegas to marry Alphas, which was the whole reason King and Queen had taken their daughter and many other former Eastern Pack wolves, Scava included, to Banff. They'd conquered the wolves there, executing all the Betas and Omegas, and any Alphas who'd resisted or refused their beliefs. Everyone else become slaves if they were believed to be against King and Queen, both of whom were possibly deceased after the world ended. Given the lack of encounters with rogues over the last 2,108 miles, they could assume that all of the rogues had died when the world ended, King and Queen included, except for Scava. Scava was probably the last rogue, but if he truly had killed Princess, and if he'd done something to Humphrey, there wouldn't be any more rogues when Kate, Lilly, and the others got done with him!

"What if Scava did something to him?" Kate cried. Then she got angry at that possibility. "I'll fucking kill him if he did anything to Humphrey!"

"Let's go back to the place we lost Humphrey's trail," Lilly said. "Maybe he went into the tall grass."

The sisters found the tall grass, among other things. In addition to the small amount of fresh blood on the ground, the scent of blood coming from the tall grass was strong. It was too much for the two females to handle. They also could smell Humphrey and Scava's scents in the tall grass.

For that reason, their hackles, ears, and tails had risen, and they were showing their fangs when they went through the tall grass. When they saw Humphrey's lifeless and mutilated body lying in the clearing, it was not just their level of grief that increased but also their angry. Kate started cursing worse than she ever had.

"Scava!" Kate roared. "You fucker! Where are you?!" There was no answer. "You pussy, you kill a wolf when he's got his pack turned on you, and now that we're here, are you afraid to come out?! Get out here now or we will hunt you down and kill you!"

Scava lunged out of the grass suddenly and landed right in front of them. "So you're gonna kill me?" Scava taunted. "A weak Alpha and a weak Omega like you? Don't make me laugh! Two weak females like you couldn't begin to hurt me!"

Out of pure anger and grief, and as if you contradict him, Kate clawed him across the already mutilated side of his face. She took out small pieces of flesh and got Scava's blood on her face. "Who's the weak Alpha, now?" Kate barked.

"You…bitch!" Scava roared, and lunged onto Kate's back. Quickly, he flipped Kate around right into a rock. Her head collided with it, and she was knocked unconscious. But not before Kate had a chance to tell Lilly to run, but it was too late. Scava was already on top of Lilly, pinning her to the ground.

"No! Don't!" Lilly cried, fearing he was going to rape her. "Just kill me! Don't mate! NO!"

"I won't mate with an Omega even if it meant making her suffer," Scava spat. "I wouldn't want to catch some disease from you and act like an Omega. Alphas are better than Omegas because they don't believe it having fun, acting like a fool when they should be acting serious, and whoring around and fucking everything with two or four legs!"

"Fuck you!" Lilly snapped. "I don't do that, but at least I don't go around murdering innocent wolves! You killed Princess!"

"She's not the only one!" Scava yelled. "I killed Candy, too! And as for Scar and Sweets, I'd might as well as have caused their deaths! I knew that the area Scar had been when he was choked to death by those vines was dangerous, and you may not you have noticed it, but I'd actually pushed him there during the earthquake. It was the perfect chance to do it when the ground was shaking! Anyone who had seen it…well, they probably assumed that I'd been thrown around because of the earthquake and had fallen into Scar." Scava did not give Lilly a chance to speak. He put his massive paw over her muzzle as she attempted to curse him out. "And as for Sweets, I had heard about the possibly weak ground around such areas, so I'd suggested that Claws and her should sleep by that ditch. I'd wanted them to both die, but I made it look like I wanted to help when Claws had managed to get up there because of Sweets! I'd had a change of heart for Claws after a while only because the bitch is pregnant. Otherwise, I would've killed her!"

Lilly was stunned, but could not speak. Scava went on. "You want me to explain what happened with Candy, don't you? Well, I will. When that stupid female had come out of the room she was sleeping in, after Claws had ran away and Princess had gone to look for the intruder…and I should tell you I was the one who broke into the gas station. Your stupid sister had forgotten to lock the back door, so I'd gone out it and busted the back window out with a rock, then came back in and hid in a box until Princess and Claws had left. That was when Candy came out of the room—I assume she'd been woke up by the glass shattering—and I decided to kill her just to scare everyone of your group! And because she was an Omega! I targeted all the Betas and Omegas in your group before anyone. And I'd had it out for Princess because she killed one of my little brothers in the blood sports when we were adolescents! He didn't deserve to be gutted by her, and so I killed her, and then let the rabid wolverines finish her off!"

Kate was just waking up now. She hadn't heard any of this. "You fucking bastard!" she screamed, only to be cuffed across the head by Scava.

"You watch your mouth, Kate," Scava warned. "You are lucky I'm going to kill you last for being an Alpha. Your sister will die first because she is an Omega!"

Scava, Kate, and Lilly were unaware that another wolf, one with orange fur, was watching them from the tallest of the grass. It was Claws. She'd left Claudette, Runt, Stinky, Mica, and Magril, and the other survivors from Jasper who found them, only feet away to come see what was taking them so long to catch up. They'd been resting as well only three meters away. She'd found Garth, Eve, Hutch, Candu, and Melissa—a former member of King's pack and Hutch's mate.

"You bastard…" Claws whispered, then slipped away to get the others.

* * *

**Author's note:** I doubt anyone expected that. Scava is who killed Candy, and caused the deaths of Scar and Sweets.


	24. The Bloodiest Day

**Chapter 23**

**The Bloodiest Day**

Claws had just returned to the clearing where she'd been resting with the young wolves and the other survivors she'd found. She'd already told them everything that happened—the deaths of Princess, Sweets, Candy, Scar, Fleet, and now Humphrey.

"Scava killed Princess, Candy, and now Humphrey," Claws said and everyone gasped. "I went back to see what was taking them so long, as you all know, and I heard him admit to that. He also admitted to causes Scar and Sweets's deaths by causing them to end up where they died!"

"What do we do now?" Mica cried.

"We kill Scava!" Stinky roared. "He killed too many of our friends and now he took our father away! We have to stop him before he kills our mother and Lilly!"

"I want Stinky, Garth, Hutch, Candu, Eve, and Melissa to come with me," Claws instructed. "The rest of you are going to stay here and kill Scava if he comes this way. I'm sure you can handle that. We're going to at least save Kate and Lilly, and hopefully kill Scava. But if he gets away, we'll drive him towards you, and you'll finish him off. He does not live another day for what he did. Do you understand me? I want him to bleed out on this island, not live on it! Now let's go before it's too late."

The wolves whom she'd requested to come with her did not hesitate to follow the very pregnant wolf on a mission that was extremely important. But they were concerned about her belly. What if she got hurt in the battle to come? What if something happened that resulted in her death or the death of her puppies? They knew Claws was a strong wolf, but was she really up for something like this when she was pregnant? There was no talking her out of this, because Scava had killed Princess, probably her closest friend, so they could only hope for the best.

* * *

"Scava killed Princess, Candy, and Humphrey," Lilly whispered so he wouldn't be able to hear her. "He just admitted to that and causing the Scar and Sweet's deaths."

"What?!" Kate gasped in a whisper. "I would say we kill him but that didn't exactly work out!"

Kate and Lilly were now tied up at their hands and feet, with vines. Scava had done it to them so they wouldn't be able to get away as he slept off his exhaustion. He hadn't slept at night in days because he'd been planning everything he was doing now and had done, including killing Humphrey. He'd actually wanted to kill Lilly first, but Humphrey had been the first one to be alone, so he took him out first.

"Try to pull your front paws out, Kate," Lilly instructed, "and then you can slash the vines and get us out of here. We'll kill him in his sleep—that's probably the only time we'd be able to actually do it—and then run away. We'll have to find the others so we can bury Humphrey!"

Kate was pulling her front legs toward her body as Lilly had instructed her to and it eventually worked. Her paws slipped right through the vines, and she was able to slice the ones around her hind legs with them. Kate froze on the spot when she heard Scava gasp and saw him turn over. Thankfully, it was the kind of gasp that wolves made when they slept and he'd turned so his back was facing them. That would make it so much easier for Kate to free Lilly and form to finish that fucker off once and for all. Scava survived the apocalypse, but he would not make it out of this field. Kate and Lilly would make sure of that. And they hoped that Claws and the others were getting worried and on their way back here. The sisters feared that they'd need all the help they can get to kill him. They'd been easily overpowered and hogtied by Scava, but it was even easier for them to get out of this.

Kate extended her claws again and slashed the vines that were around Lilly's front and hind legs. The sisters stood up carefully and darted for the tall grass. They noticed that someone had been lying there for a while. Kate sniffed the spot.

"Claws was here," she whispered. "That means she saw and heard everything Scava did and said to us. We may not need to wait long for reinforcements after all, but that doesn't mean we're not going to wait to at least fight Scava until they show up. We just need to draw as much blood from him as possible. It'll make him weak. Hopefully so weak, sooner or later, that we'll be able to go for his jugular without getting wounded ourselves." Kate looked to her sister, who was on her right. They'd been through so much together throughout their lives, but could she do this? "Are you up to this, Lilly, or should we go get help?"

"No," Lilly snarled. "We end this now. I will go for his throat while you go for his feet. He won't be able to get us both if we go for two of his weakest points on his body."

In this moment, Lilly, just as Kate had, turned into a completely different wolf. She was no longer the shy Omega she was known for being. Lilly was acting as if she was an Alpha—bearing her fangs and teeth like her mother Eve would've in this situation, raising her tail, ears, and hackles in a defensive posture. She was ready to kill. Lilly wanted to taste Scava's blood and to dig her claws, which she was anxiously clicking on the ground, into the rogue wolfs flesh. She wanted to see his jugular vein get slashed open and then see him bleed out all over the clearing. And she would do the same to Scava as he'd done to Humphrey. She'd pluck out his fucking eyeballs, sever his tongue, and who knows what else. Eve had once said, to the Eastern Pack wolves, "I just one to say one thing: if any of you wolves have hurt my daughter, I will personally RIP out your eyes, and SHOVE them down your throat, so you can see my claws TEAR YOUR CARCASS OPEN!"

It was obviously too late for the part regarding _if_ Scava hurt someone—he'd already killed three of them and caused the deaths of two others—but this was what Lilly wanted to do to Scava so badly. She was the least violent member of the group, but just that Scava had killed Humphrey, Princess, and Candy, caused the deaths of two of their other friends, and was going to kill them…Lilly was turning more and more into Eve with ever second she looked at Scava. There hadn't been a rogue she liked since Princess and Melissa, and now one, maybe both, of them were dead, and there wouldn't be any more after they kill Scava. He was probably the last of the rogue wolves from Banff, and, quite honestly, Kate and Lilly hoped he was!

"Are we going to do this, sister?" Lilly asked with anxiousness in her voice.

"You're damn right we are," Kate growled. "Give him Hell before we send him there, Lilly, because that's all he's done for us…but let's not be loud about this…"

Kate and Lilly came out of the grass and silently stalked their way over to where Scava was sleeping. It made the sisters physically ill just to look at this sick in the mind wolf. They wanted to puke all over this piece of shit, but then they wouldn't have a chance to kill him and he probably would kill them instead. They could desecrate Scava after they killed him. They wouldn't bury him, nor would they respect his body. They'd throw it out into the bay and let whatever fish come back eat it. Of course, he'd probably make the fish sick if they ate his corpse.

The sisters had only been standing over Scava for a few seconds when his yellow eyes shot wide open. There was an almost evil look in them. It was the look of a killer and one who was angry. The former rogue was up on a second, going straight for Kate's throat. While that was going on, Lilly jumped on Scava's back and dug her claws and teeth into his shoulder. That did enough to distract him from attacking Kate, but now he was after Lilly, chasing her around the clearing until he pinned her to the ground—

—And that was when Kate lunged through the air as if she was after a caribou. She landed on Scava's back and picked up where right Lilly left off by clawing and biting at his already wounded shoulder. There was so much blood spray out of his shoulder that it was like a can of spray paint had been emptied out on Kate's face. Between Kate attacking him from behind, and being unable to get her off no matter how much he tried, and Lilly clawing at his chest and soft underbelly, Scava was in a pissed off frenzy as he tried to wound either of the sisters. That was something he couldn't accomplish. Kate's front and hind claws were dug into his flesh in such a way that she wasn't getting off that easily, as she tore into his shoulder with her fangs. And Lilly was in a position beneath Scava that protected her from getting hurt, while being able to hurt him as much as she wanted to. Lilly was screaming not because her once snow-white fur had been stained red with Scava's blood but because Scava was on top of her. She was afraid he'd be able to hurt her, even thought it was obviously impossible because of how she was lying on the ground.

Lilly was kicking and screaming, trying to get this heavy son of a bitch off her. She was scared to death, as her front claws dug into his chest and her hind legs dug into his belly. It was hard to believe she hadn't spilled his guts out yet because of how she was clawing his belly. Both Kate and Lilly were snarling the entire time.

"Stop kicking, you bitch," Scava snarled, "so I can mutilate you!"

"You will do no such thing to my sister!" Kate roared. "I'll tear your head off and crush it before you can do anything to her!"

"Shut up, damn it!" Scava roared. And just for saying that to her, Kate bit deeper into his shoulder, causing him to scream, "Oh, fuck you!" And then he reared up, tossing Kate onto the ground, while simultaneously allow Lilly's claws to graze him between the legs. There was a spray of blood as Scava screamed and cursed in agony. Lilly hadn't clawed anything off, but that still HURT! And that did it. Scava was so angry now that he had completely forgotten Kate was behind him, and was going straight for Lilly and no one else. Just her. Scava's fangs were inches from Lilly's exposed throat, as she lay on her back screaming again.

"No!" Kate screamed, and went straight for Scava's back. Her fangs went into the soft skin right under his ribcage and a chunk of his flesh was torn out as a result. Kate spit it out and went right back to clawing and biting him again.

"It seems your fucking whore of a sister is a better fighter than you!" Scava growled. "I'll kill her first so I can have a chance to hurt you!"

Scava spun around and raked Kate across the face, leaving three or four claw marks where he'd dug into her. At least he hadn't hit anywhere near her eye. These injuries would be healed again in no time, but an injury to her eye would've devastated her beautiful face, and probably blinded her, if not take her eye out all together. Kate did the same to him, raking her claws across his already skinned side of his face. The side that had been mutilated by Princess after Candy died and he'd been accused of cowardice. Cowardice that had caused Candy's death. But now they knew it hadn't been a coward—he killed Candy and, most likely, had gone to the upstairs to wash all the blood off himself in one of the bathrooms up there.

The former rogue let out the most agonizing scream either of the sisters had ever heard in their lives when Kate's claws took bits of flesh off his already mutilated side of his face.

It was Scava's turn to be the aggressor. As soon as Kate had pulled her right paw away, he went for her throat and bit into it, then pulled back. There was a small bite of flesh taken out of her throat, but, luckily, it wasn't anywhere near her jugular vein. The jugular vein was sometimes called the "life-giving vein" by wolves because it was what supplied blood to the brain from the heart, and if it was ever cut or destroyed, it was a fatal injury. Nothing could be done to save a wolf whose jugular had been heavily wounded.

The sisters knew that and, in short, Kate and Lilly were trying to slash Scava's jugular just as he was trying to slash either of their jugulars. But, in this moment, everything went straight to Hell when Scava clawed at Kate and hit the one place she'd been protecting for the entire fight. Her jugular. Scava's razor-like claws dug her jugular open and blood gushed out as Kate fell on her side, gasping for breath. Scava got down to her level on the ground and put his fangs to her throat.

"Any…last words?" he groaned in pain.

Kate couldn't speak but all three of the fighting wolves heard someone shouting.

"Scava, you motherfucker!"

Scava and Lilly looked up at the opening in the grassy field from where the angry voice came from. It was Claws who had shouted that. And behind her was six more wolves—Stinky, Garth, Hutch, Candu, Eve, and Melissa. All seven of the wolves on a dome-like structure of dirt snarling at Scava, who began backing off. But he'd forgotten all about Lilly after going after Kate and she'd regained her energy in the time they'd fought. And when she saw her sister's throat get slashed, Lilly had turned into a different wolf again. Sliding underneath Scava, on her back, she'd extended her claws at his crotch, and dug them through his underside. Screaming, Scava could feel his underside being cut open by Lilly's claws.

Lilly hardly reacted as Scava's belly came open and his guts spilled all over her. The dark gray was screaming and gasping for air when he collapsed onto Lilly, who kicked him off with her hind legs. She stood up. His stomach and entrails fell off her, and she looked at him as the other seven came over.

"Let me finish this fucker off," Claws snarled. "I've been waiting too long for this," she added, moving her fangs toward the dying wolf's throat. "This is for Princess!" Claws roared and then put her jaws around Scava's throat. She tore it out in one swift movement, and then threw it aside like a bone would be thrown aside during a caribou feast.

The eight Jasper wolves immediately turned their attention back to Kate. Scava was dead and Kate was dying, blood gushing from her sliced jugular. Although she knew better, Eve, a strong and heavy wolf, was pressing down on the gash in her daughter's throat. It was in vain, but she was acting the instinct of the pack healer she was and always had been.

"Kate!" Eve cried. "You can't die! Oh, Kate…"

Melissa, who was too familiar with such a scene as was going on now, carefully approached Eve from the side. "There's nothing you can do for her, Eve," the former female rogue said sympathetically. "She's gone…"

"Oh, mother…" Stinky cried as he crowed around his now deceased mother's body, joining Eve in crying.

Soon, the wolves began howling, even the ones who were lying on the ground. All of the survivors—Lilly, Claws, Claudette, Runt, Stinky, Garth, Eve, Hutch, and Candu—were howling mournfully when Runt, Claudette, Mica, Magril, and Marco the crow arrived. They were shocked when they saw Scava, Kate, and Humphrey—all dead on the ground and either lightly or heavily mutilated. The steaming pile of guts, Scava's guts, hardly made them sick because they thought about how he deserved such a brutal fate.

"W-what happened?" Stinky stammered, as he and Runt stared on with disbelief, attempting to comfort Mica and Magril.

"Scava killed Kate and Humphrey," Hutch said in a sad voice. "And Lilly killed him with Kate's help."

"No…no…why?!" Claudette was screaming as she buried her face in the fur on Candu's shoulder, even if she was twice his size.

"What do we do now?" Candu asked.

"We'll bury Kate and Humphrey here," Claws decided for the group in a sad yet angry voice, "and throw that piece of shit in the water for the fish to eat," she added, referring to Scava. "Then we'll move on to the center of the island, where Garth said it was safe for us all, and they'd already claimed and marked our territory on the island before any other wolves could."


	25. New Life on Baffin Island

**Chapter 24**

**New Life on Baffin Island**

_Two months later…_

Claws, Mica, Magril, and Lilly had all given birth to their first litters, but only two of them had their mates with them to raise their litters. Although Stinky and Garth had survived—despite earlier confusion about Garth's fate—Scar and Liam did not.

Claws had given birth to six puppies five days after Scava, Kate, and Humphrey were all killed, and she named them Dahlia, Kara, Christina, Jordon, Justin, and Scar. Dahlia was named for not just the flower, but also a sad, dark song called "Black Dahlia" she'd heard a human listening to. The name of the band was something like "Hollywood Undead," but Claws couldn't really remember for sure now. It'd been before she even got pregnant when she heard it, but she hadn't forgotten that heart wrenching song. The second verse had hit her especially hard because the singer had sounded like he'd been on the verge of crying before he was half way through his verse. And Scar was, obviously, named for his deceased father whom he'd never now. Claws wasn't sure how she'd thought of the names Kara, Christina, Jordon, and Justin. They'd just come to her for no reason at all.

Mica had given birth to fourteen puppies. She was lucky Stinky was still alive or it would've been difficult raising and naming them all. The nine girls' names were Kate (she was named for their deceased grandmother), Kelsie, Kaylee, Maddie, Susie, Missy, Chrissie, Abigail, and Kaydence. The five boys' names were Cody, Cooper, Tyler, Zach, and Dakota. Although Stinky and Mica loved them all dearly, none of their names came from any special sources, unlike how Claws had named Dahlia and Scar.

Magril, also a widow, just like Claws, had named her eight children—four daughters and four sons—all by herself. The girls' names were Madison, Amy, Molly, and Ashley. The boys' names were Liam (obviously named for their father who died when The Howling Rock had collapsed), Hunter, Travis, and Brandon. Just as Claws had done with her young son Scar—naming him for his late father—Magril had the same thing in mind when she'd named her oldest son after the father they'd never now. Claws and Magril had gotten closer because they both lost their mates almost the same way. Although Magril couldn't replace Princess as Claws's best friend, and Magril perfectly understood why, they were both good friends in the two months since they'd reached Baffin Island.

Lilly, unlike Claws, Mica, and Magril, hadn't given birth to a mixture almost evil mixture of sons and daughters. She'd given birth to one son and five daughters. If Garth was dead like she'd feared so many months ago, she would've named their only son after him, but he was a live, so they'd followed Mica's example of naming a daughter after Kate, Claws naming a son after Scar, and Magril name a son after Liam. Lilly and Garth had agreed to name their only son after Humphrey, who had been brutally murdered by Scava—who Lilly mutilated when he'd turned his back on her—on the day they'd finally reached Baffin Island. That way, they wouldn't forget Kate, Humphrey, Scar, and Liam. That wasn't to say they would forgot anyone else who died. They'd always remember everyone who lost their lives until they were dead themselves. Lilly and Garth had named their five daughters Nikki, Julie, Zoë, Sadie, and Courtney.

Stinky and Mica had become the Alpha male and the Alpha female of this new wolf pack for several reasons. The primary reason was because of all the death. Because Fleet had been killed when that train derailed, Claudette, the oldest of Kate and Humphrey's two Alpha offspring, was a widow, and therefore, she was automatically out of the pick to simply because she was a widow. The second case of this was Princess and Runt. Runt was still alive, but Princess had been killed by Scava not far from here. The third case of this was Magril and Liam, but even if Liam was alive, they couldn't become the back leaders because they were the youngest of their generation, excluding Runt. And because Kate and Humphrey had both been killed by Scava, that automatically made Stinky and Mica the new pack leaders. Stinky was the oldest Alpha offspring who still had a mate, and they were the first taken into consideration for being the new pack leaders.

The windowed wolves now lived with some of their fellow pack members who had also lost their mates. Magril was living with Candu and his only surviving daughter so they'd have someone help raise the three-month old wolf pup called Natalie. Claudette and Runt lived with Lilly and Garth, and acted as an aunt and uncle for their first litter of puppies, even if they were their cousins, not their aunt and uncle.

To this day, over two months after Scava was killed by Lilly and Claws, the twelve survivors, out of twenty who had been alive the day after the world had ended, were still shaken by what had happened to Kate and Humphrey two months ago. They were shaken by all of the deaths—Kate, Humphrey, Princess, Fleet, Sweets, Candy, Scar, and, at one point, they'd feared Garth was dead. They'd never forget what happened to their friends, nor would they ever forgot them and everyone who died when the world had ended. The only wolf they wanted to forget was—

"—that motherfucker called Scava," Stinky said to Mica, his mate, when their children were play outside the den and out of hearing range. "I hope he is burning in the deepest pits of Hell and that he'll be there forever."

"I wish we could just forget him and everything he did to our friends and family," Mica almost cried. "I don't ever want to hear Scava's name, anything that sounds like it, and I don't want to hear anyone talk about him again for as long as we live. But, yes dear, I'm sure he's burning in the deepest pits of Hell forever…but even that is too good of a fate for someone like Scava…but we're living a new life now, Stinky, and we can't spend the rest of our lives thinking about what we went through because of him."


	26. Epilogue: The End of Lilly's Last Story

**Epilogue**

**The End of Lilly's Last Story**

Lilly was now an elderly wolf as she told her story about the only twelve survivors out of hundreds of wolves who'd once lived in Jasper National Park, Canada. She was still on the same tree stump she had been when she began telling this story. If it wasn't for her voice and her wrinkled skin showing through where patches of her fur had fallen off, no one in her audience would've known she was an elderly wolf. Lilly had snow one fur from the day she grew her fuzzy coat to today.

Everyone else from her generation had passed away already. Her mother Eve was obviously the first who had passed away, given she had become a great grandmother two months after the twelve survivors had reached Baffin Island about five years ago. Everyone else of her generation had passed away anywhere from four years to five years after they arrived at Baffin Island. Garth, ironically, considering his obsession with fitness and being health was the first of them who'd passed away. He'd died of a heart attack a year ago when he and Lilly had been sleeping in their new den. They'd moved out of the Alpha den when they'd first begun showing signs of being elderly. Their oldest pup, their oldest daughter Kaydence—an Alpha—had become the pack leader with her mate, who was a young Alpha wolf called Sawyer. Sawyer was not the offspring of any of the Jasper wolves, but two Alpha parents from Red Deer Park who had fled to Baffin Island after hearing the same rumors the Jasper wolves had heard.

After Eve and Garth, Marco, the crow who'd followed them for almost the entire journey from Jasper to Baffin Island, had passed away due to natural causes—old age, to be specific. Hutch and Candu had passed away for the same reason in their sleep. Except for Claws, they were the oldest of the final for who had been alive at the times of their deaths. Claws had passed away two weeks ago, from old age, surrounded by her six adult children and all her adolescent grandchildren, in addition to Lilly, Claudette, Runt, Stinky, Mica, and Magril. The three children of Kate and Humphrey, plus Mica and Magril, were no longer young adult wolves, but about the age Eve had been when she'd been the Alpha female of the Western Wolf Pack of Jasper Park.

Lilly was the only survivor of her entire generation now and even she was getting old. She was older than Eve had been when she'd passed away five years ago. She was now blind in one eye and deaf in one eye. It would be odd that they were both on the life side of her body, but Lilly had suffered an almost massive stroke a few months ago that had devastated the entire left side of her body. She had very little control over her left legs, and had lost all control of her eye and ear. She couldn't even use the left side of her face to blink, smile, or twice her ear anymore. Her children always usually had to help their ailing mother around their new territory.

The half-crippled wolf was helped down off the tree stump by five of her children. She looked at the gathering with her one good eye. It was all of the children and grandchildren of the wolves she'd traveled here with, in addition to the families of those children's mates. Basically, her entire pack was here. Lilly knew as she was led back the den where she and Garth had lived in together until his death, that her life was coming to an end. She was an old wolf, older than all the others had lived to be, of those who weren't killed by Scava on this island all those years ago. She still remembered how Claws and Stinky had pushed his body into the Hudson Bay before leaving the shoreline. The last time they'd ever seen his body was when, oddly enough since Claws had mentioned it once, it was eaten by a shark that had swam through the opening at the north end of the bay from the Northern Atlantic Ocean.

"I want to be alone, my children," Lilly said to Kelsie, Kaylee, Maddie, Cody, and Cooper, her three oldest daughters and her two oldest sons, as they helped their mother lay down on her a bed of mosses. "You all know what is going to happen."

"Oh, mother," Kaylee cried. "Don't leave us now. You grandchildren, our children, will be really devastated by your passing…and so will we."

Lilly coughed a sickly cough. "Don't fret, Kaylee…all of you. I have lived a full life for a wolf…and then some. There isn't much reason for me to go living…especially with only half a functioning body. I've done a lot in my long life…and I'm content. So leave me be and you can come check on me later…" Lilly let her still snow-white head fall onto the moss as her children reluctantly left their mother's den. They knew she was dying, and so did Lilly, so why did she want to be alone when she died? Claws hadn't wanted to be alone when she'd passed away, so why did their mother, who'd been there for Claws?

When Lilly was positive her children had left them, she began to let herself slip away. She closed her right eye—the left always had been closed since she had that stroke. Lilly closed her muzzle and only breathed through her nose. She could feel her old and ailing body shutting down and her soul leaving her body in this instance. Lilly breathed once, no, twice, and then her breathing stopped. Her chest fell once last time, and then didn't rise again. She would not move from this spot again, under her own will, because she'd passed away, and her soul was on its away to heaven to be with Kate, Humphrey, and everyone else who'd died on the journey to Baffin Island, Scava excluded, and everyone who died in the five years since their arrival. Lilly was content with her own death as her soul rose higher…she would get to see all her late friends and family once again…and be with them forever…


	27. Alt Version of Ch 11: A Very Toxic Area

**Author's note:** I know this story is complete, but I wanted to post one scene that ended entirely differently from what was read in the final version. This is an alternate scene in Paradise Lost that in which two wolves died rather than just Sweets. The chapter is was supposed to be was Chapter 11 of the story, but I changed this as, when I finally typed this story out from the notebook it's in, I changed it so Claws lived.

And if wonders why it says Kate, Humphrey, Lilly, Scava, and Princess are the only survivors after Claws and Sweets die, it's because in the old version Claudette was missing (assumed dead) and her brothers were dead. Fleet and Magril weren't in the old version of story as A&O3 hadn't been released when I originally wrote Paradise Lost (Paradise Lost is the first A&O fanfic I ever wrote, I should point out. I just didn't post it here until 8 months after I wrote it). And Scava was my only OC back then, so Mica didn't exist yet either, meaning that Stinky didn't have a mate unlike in the final version.

* * *

**Chapter 11**

**A Very Toxic Area**

It was several days since the survivors had left the gas station, and the clearing near where Fleet had pleasured Claudette, each a place where they'd spent a night and an entire day resting. They were several hundred miles from Jasper Park now. Marco, the crow, estimated that they were now about halfway to the shoreline of Hudson Bay. Of course, that was 661.5 miles from where they were now, and then it was another 785 miles until they reached supposed safe haven known as Baffin Island. That was another 1,446.5 miles until they would finally be safe…hopefully.

_Another 1,446.5 miles of fucking hell_, Claws thought angrily, bitterly. _And I'll be glad when we get there so I don't have to look at that asshole Scava anymore_. She looked at the dark gray wolf, who was still wearing that damn ugly mask after Princess had taken off his face off, with a look of murder in her eyes and such a thought in her head. If she weren't pregnant, Claws would kill him so brutally that they'd have to come up with a new word besides slaughter, massacre, annihilation, mass murder, mass execution, mass destruction, bloodbath, slay, assassinate, eliminate, exterminate, butcher, killing, homicide, kill, carnage, bloodshed, or butchery to describe how bad she would kill Scava if it was physically possible. Of course, Claws wasn't stupid—she knew better than to attack a wolf, whether he was larger than she was or not, when she was pregnant. If Scar weren't dead, she'd have him kill that heartless motherfucker. But her loving mate was dead, so maybe Princess would kill him soon. She knew how much Princess hated Scava. The best way she'd describe Princess's hate of Scava was this: she put almost as much passion in her hate toward Scava as she put passion into loving Runt. It was bad when someone hated another wolf as much as that wolf loved her mate.

Now, the wolves and the crow were resting for the first time in five days, sleeping excluded. They had traveled 350 miles in those 5 days—70 miles each day, with was 40 more miles than most wolves usually traveled in a day. That wasn't unheard of, but it was anything but impossible for a wolf, or a pack of wolves, to travel 70 to 100 miles in a day. Normally, wolves didn't have a reason to travel that far, but trying to find a safe haven after the world ended when they were being followed by a wolf who had a taste for wolf and human blood was a good reason to travel more than double the distance they traveled each day. They were sure they'd lost that bloodthirsty wolf now.

The fourteen survivors—thirteen wolves and one crow, still—weren't too far from a canyon with a massive opening in the bottom of it. The opening appeared empty at a brief first glance, but they soon realized it was flooded with lava deep into, maybe 300 meters (984 feet, 3 1/32 inches) down the opening in the ground. That was comforting, at least, for the wolves wouldn't need to worry about escaping if that was an underground volcano rather than nothing more than an opening in the ground. Or, if it began rising out of that opening, they'd have a chance to escape before it burned them all up. There was also a gas rising out of the opening, probably the "carbon dioxide," or whatever it was, Marco had been talking about several days ago.

They were also enjoying their first meal of caribou, one that died an hour ago, in over a week. Claws was ravenously eating from the carcass since she was pregnant. She was lacking essential nutrition because she hadn't been eaten like a pregnant wolf should eat since the world ended about a week ago. Claws could eat two, if not three, times more caribou meat than a non-pregnant female could even begin to think about eating. Everyone had eaten their fill within fifteen minutes of finding this dead caribou except for Claws, who took twenty-five minutes to eat her fill. She even made sure she got to eat the liver, the stomach, and the intestines of the caribou. Those were the most nutritious, and the most delicious, in her mind, part of a caribou.

Claws and Sweets were now sleeping near the canyon because of the heat it gave off. Not one of the survivors were concerned that something bad would happen like what happened to Garth and Scar—they died because the ground collapsed. They'd all checked this area out before settling here to eat. It was safe for the fourteen wolves. Marco had nothing the worry about—he could just fly away from any danger there could be.

Lilly had wanted to be alone after eating her fill of caribou meat. Not even Kate was by her side this time. Lilly was thinking about all the good memories she had with the missing—Garth and Eve—as well as Claudette, who she'd feared dead a week earlier. She didn't really know Hutch, missing, and Scar, dead, that much to have any memories about them.

Although Claudette was not dead, everyone had feared her dead until Fleet had brought her and Magril out of a den at The Howling Rock that hadn't been destroyed by the earthquake. The first wolf Lilly was thinking about was Claudette, her niece, and the oldest pup, and the only daughter, of Kate and Humphrey. Just like Runt and Stinky's mates, Princess and Mica, Lilly and Claws too, Claudette as pregnant with her mate's puppies. The different was that Princess and Lilly weren't heavily pregnant like Lilly, Mica, and Claws were. Lilly's best memory of her niece was from this year's Halloween when an angry grizzly bear had come rampaging through the Western Wolf Pack's Territory. Claudette had been chasing the bear away from their territory with several other wolves when one of the now dead park rangers had arrived with a tranquilizer rifle power enough to put a bear down in a minute with just one dart. The other wolves had gotten out of the way in time to avoid being shot by the tranquilizer rifle—

—except for Claudette. She'd been right in the line of fire, still chasing the bear, when the park ranger's first shot hit her in the butt, right above her tail on the right side. She'd skidded off the path as the ranger took another shot, this time hitting the bear in the butt with a dart rather than another wolf, right into the wolves she'd been chasing the bear with. Somehow, she'd managed to not crash into them, and stop by dragging her hind paws and butt on the ground. (That had made her feel like her paws and her butt were on fire.)

With a disoriented look in her eyes, cross-eyed, and her tongue hanging out of her off center jaw, dripping saliva, she'd uttered only two wolves before passing out: "Ow…tranq…uilizer…"

They'd all laughed when Claudette fell flat on her back, and Lilly was laughing quietly to herself. She also recalled how Claudette had been taken to the park rangers' station by the one who had shot the bear with a dart, after the bear was relocated to another park before it woke up, to recover from the effects of the tranquilizer drug in the dart.

The second wolf on her mind was her mate Garth whom she missed so much ever since the day he'd been washed away by the river formed at The Howling Rock by the earthquake. Other than when they'd mated in the field south of The Howling Rock, on the night the world ended, Lilly's two best memories she had of Garth were, when it was still forbidden according to pack law that Alphas, Betas, and Omegas couldn't howl with wolves outside their own rank. But she and Garth had howled with each other when it was against pack law, only to be caught by Tony and other Eastern Pack Wolves who had come to take over the Western Wolf Pack's Territory. The second good memory was when Garth had decided to teach Lilly how to hunt. She'd tried to lunge after a pinecone hanging from a low branch, only to miss and launch her own body into a dead tree rather than at the pinecone. She'd hid herself under the bark stuck on her back when Garth found her. And when Lilly had claimed she had no hunting skill, Garth had said moving the lock of hair off her right eye would help. Then he'd said her purple eyes were beautiful, the most beautiful he'd ever seen on a female wolf before.

Then there was her mother, Eve. Like Garth, there had been no signs of her body or that she was dead. It wasn't even possible to consider her mother was dead because of what Marco, the crow, had said he saw at the shoreline of Hudson Bay. It sounded like he had seen Eve and Hutch, possibly two other wolves, too, there, but, unfortunately: he hadn't thought to get their names first. They hadn't found Eve's body like they had Winston and Tony's bodies. Her best memory with Eve was of when she'd been nothing more than a wolf pup. She had only just started talking. Eve, like all other wolves, had decided to teach Kate and Lilly how to swim at a young age. Kate had done perfectly while Lilly had done decently—

—she'd ended up wearing a lily pad around her neck like a necklace when she'd dived into the river, trying to show off to her Alpha sister and Alpha mother.

Lilly even had good memories of Humphrey before Kate had fallen in love with him and she'd fallen in love with Garth. Lilly had almost fallen in love with Humphrey until she'd been given permission her to lead Garth on a "tour of the valley" until Kate returned. She'd almost fallen in love with Humphrey when Kate had been talking to Garth. She'd told Lilly and Humphrey to run off and have fun until she came looking for her little sister.

And they did under a tree near The Howling Rock. No, Lilly didn't mate with Humphrey, fearing what Eve would've done to him if he had gotten her pregnant. The only time a female wolf could get pregnant was when she was in heat, but Lilly hadn't known the difference back then. She'd been rather ignorant about her own body when she was an adolescent. So, instead of mating with Humphrey, she'd given him a blow…_Heh-heh, that's a little too much information,_ she thought. Lilly also remembered how nothing she'd said or did made Humphrey feel any better about being dumped, basically, by Kate for Garth. At least, in the end, all four of them were able to marry the wolf they truly loved, and not someone they would've been forced to marry.

Lilly heard screaming all of a sudden that made her snap out of her thoughts.

"Claws, Sweets! Get away from the ledge! Now!" It was Princess. But the other twelve wolves were too late—

—the ground where they were sleeping gave in and the two females, one very pregnant, slid down the sandy side of the canyon. Neither of them had been injured by the fall, but they were still both in danger. Carbon dioxide was leaking from the opening in the ground at dangerous levels. If the two female wolves were in this canyon for too long, the toxic gas would suffocate and eventually kill them.

Sweets, a weak wolf to begin with, was already weakened by the potent gas, but she was trying to push Claws up the sandy hill to the footholds in the wall. She didn't care about herself getting out as much as getting a very pregnant Claws, who was obviously heavy, out of here so she would live to have her puppies. Sweets had nothing left to live for—Salty was dead and they'd never mated. Sweets was beginning to gasp for breaths now. She lost her strength just as she'd been about to push Claws up onto the ledge, where she'd be able to climb up freely. Sweets collapsed underneath Claws and they both tumbled back down the hill into the thickest part of the gas.

Sweets was dead almost immediately due to the gas, but Claws had survived the fall. Not without suffering injury, though. The five wolves up on the ledge—Scava, Kate, Lilly, Humphrey, and Princess—looked on helplessly at the horrific scene playing out before them. Claws and those four wolves watching her screamed when Claws landed not on her back but on her large, pregnant belly. And the scream that Claws let out seemed to echo endlessly through the canyon. She knew that her unborn pups were killed by the impact of the fall from at least seven feet up. Claws could sense that her unborn pups were dead.

Now, as she made eye contact with Sweets' lifeless body, Claws could freer her life slipping away because of the deadly carbon dioxide that filled this canyon and was floating all around her. It was choking Claws and she could feel it going into her lungs, causing her to suffocate slowly. She couldn't help it as she involuntarily breathed in large amount of the deadly gas.

Claws and the other five survivors heard a rumbling from below the ground. Suddenly, the ground shook violently before steam shot up from the crevice over which Claws' head had fallen. The hot steam shot up past Claws' head. And when it had cleared, her head had been burned right down to the bone. No fur. No flesh. Nothing was left of Claws' skull but the bone. The steam had been so scalding hot that it had melted everything away but the bone. Claws' body went limp as the magma began rising up from the same crevice that the hot steam had shot up from. The magma took the corpses of both Claws and Sweets as it rose, burning them to nothing. There was no sign of two she-wolves having ever been there.

"We need to leave, now…" Princess began but her voice was overshadowed by the sudden sound of rock splintering. Rock and magma shot up from the ground and sent the five wolves scattering. It was chaos all around this area and the wolves had no choice but to run in directions if they wanted to live.


End file.
